Jharkand land 'scam': ED arrests IAS officer for money-laundering

Ranchi, May 4 (IANS) Jharkand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan was on Thursday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case related to the land scam case in the state after 10 hours of questioning.

Ranjan, currently posted as Director in the Social Welfare Department, was earlier the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi, and during his tenure, four-and-a-half acres of defence land as well as other pieces of land were allegedly bought and sold on the basis of false documents.

The ED had earlier arrested seven people in connection with the case and the IAS officer's name reportedly surfaced during their questioning.

Ranjan was on Thursday summoned for questioning and it is said that he could not furnish satisfactory answers in both the cases. He was also grilled for eight hours on April 24 in connection with the same matters.

On April 13, teams of the ED had raided 21 premises of 18 people, including Ranjan, in Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal. The IAS officer had been questioned then too. During the raids, sale deeds, forged papers, incriminating documents, official seals and registers were recovered. Seven people were arrested and on questioning they revealed that official records had been tampered with for fraudulent sale of land.

It was also revealed that the defence land was illegally sold and its registry was done on the instructions of Ranjan.

During the raids, the ED had also examined Ranjan's phone and found that he had prepared for the ED's possible steps and the questions it would pose.