Land deal scam: After a day-long grilling, Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested Jharkhand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan. The 2011 batch officer has been arrested for his involvement in alleged land deals and has been taken into ED custody. The Jharkhand cadre officer is serving as director of the state’s Social Welfare Department. On Thursday, he reached the ED office at around 10.45 am and was arrested after 10 hours of grilling.
Abhishek Krishna Gupta, his lawyer, who met him told media persons: "I don't have any information of his arrest." As per the courses Ranjan can be produced in the court today. ED is expected to seek his remand. The probing agency has recorded the statement of the IAS officer under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Earlier on April 24, ED had grilled Ranjan for about 10 hours in connection with its money laundering investigation into alleged illegal land deals. On April 13, searches were conducted at his premises and was questioned by the agency. After the raids, the probing agency had arrested around seven people.
As per a report of PTI, the central agency is looking at more than a dozen land deals, including one pertaining to defence land, wherein a group, including land mafia, middlemen and bureaucrats, allegedly "connived" in forging deeds and documents from as early as 1932.
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