Army land scam: IAS Chhavi Ranjan likely to reach ED office for questioning on Monday

Ranchi: In the Army land scam case, IAS Chhavi Ranjan has been asked to reach the ED’s regional office located on Airport Road on Monday. This order has been given by the agency by issuing third summons to him. Earlier the ED had issued two summons to Chhavi Ranjan and has asked to reach the regional office on Monday at 11 am.

If ED sources are to be believed, if Chhavi Ranjan does not mark his attendance this time, then his difficulties may increase. Earlier, the ED had issued summons to him on April 17 and asked him to reach the ED regional office on April 21, but he did not turn up. He sought two weeks’ time through his lawyer. On this, the ED again issued summons on the same day asking them to come to the office by 4 pm.

Even after this he did not appear. On not reaching the regional office, the ED issued a third summon and asked to reach the office on April 24. Lawyer of the IAS officer said that paternity leave was cited as the reason for not appearing before the ED on April 21. If sources are to be believed, before the ED’s notice, he had applied for paternity leave from the government.

He had already received paternity leave from the government from April 17 to May 1 that is why he gave an application and requested to give time after the first week of May. However, ED officials did not accede to his request. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, April 13, raided a total of 21 locations of 18 people involved in land business, including IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, circle officer Manoj Kumar, in connection with government land misappropriation. The raids covered 18 locations in Jharkhand, one in Bihar and two in West Bengal.

Chhavi Ranjan is currently posted as Director of Social Welfare. Before Chhavi Ranjan, ED is interrogating seven people in remand in this land scam case. Those being questioned by the ED include the names of Pradeep Bagchi, CI of Bargai circle Bhanu Pratap Prasad, Afsar Ali, Imtiaz Ahmed, Talha Khan, Fayaz Khan and Saddam Hussain. BJP leader Babulal Marandi has said to send a proposal to the Center to sack IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan. In fact, the matter on which the ED raided is the Army Land Scam.

The accused of this scam is Pradeep Bagchi. It was Bagchi who prepared fake documents for the purchase and sale of army land. Prafulla Bagchi, the ancestor of Pradeep Bagchi, had bought this land from Khatiyaani Rayat Pramod Das Gupta in the year 1932 with the help of sale deed number 4369.

The registry of this sale deed prepared in a fake way was shown in West Bengal. While the state of West Bengal was not formed in 1932. The state of West Bengal was formed after the partition of the country. ED has taken possession of this fake sale deed.