Illegal land sale, money-laundering: ED arrests seven from Jharkhand

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested seven persons including a government official, following raids in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar.

The raids were conducted in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged illegal land sale.

The ones who have been taken into custody have been identified as Afshar Ali, Imtiaz Ahmed, Pradeep Bagchi, Md Saddam Hussain, Talha Khan, Faiyaz Khan and Bhanu Pratap Prasad.

Prasad is a circle inspector in the Jharkhand government, while the rest are middlemen according to the ED. All have been arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The raids were conducted at 22 places in the three states, including the premises f the 2011-batch Jharkhand Indian Administrative Service officer, Chhavi Rajan. He had served as a deputy commissioner in the state capital of Ranchi earlier. He was questioned by the agency earlier.

The ED has been looking into a number of land deals, including a defence land, where a group involving the land mafia, middlemen and bureaucrats allegedly connived in forging land deeds and documents from as early as 1932.

ED officials said that the lands of the poor had been usurped as part of this land fraud.

The agency has recovered a number of fake seals, land deeds and registry documents during the searches.

The leader of the BJP Babulal Marandi had asked what action will the chief minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren taken following the latest action by the ED.

This is the second case where a cadre of the Jharkhand IAS has come under the scanner of the ED. The ED had last year raided and arrested IAS officer, Pooja Singhal in connection with a money laundering case.