Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the land scam case in Jharkhand. ED investigation has revealed that a racket of land mafia is active in Jharkhand, which is engaged in tampering with land records in Ranchi and Kolkata. To illegally occupy land, the original land records of first ownership are either tampered with or hidden. After this, on the basis of fake land records, such land is sold to others.
In the land scam case, ED has so far temporarily attached properties worth Rs 266 crore (commercial value) of Jharkhand. Besides, 25 accused have also been arrested in this case. ED said that raids were conducted at 55 places and 9 surveys were conducted in cases related to land scam.
During this, many pieces of evidence like forged seals of the Land Revenue Department, forged land documents, records of distribution of crime proceeds among them, photographs of forgery being committed, giving bribes to government officials were exposed.
During the search, ED also recovered Rs 1.27 crore cash. Till now, ED has arrested 25 accused including Hemant Soren, Chhavi Ranjan, IAS (former DC, Ranchi), Bhanu Pratap Prasad (Revenue Sub-Inspector), Amit Kumar Aggarwal, Prem Prakash.
Whereas currently ED has also filed three prosecution complaints as part of the investigation in land scam cases.