Four accused sent to ED remand
PMLA court on Thursday sent four accused arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Wednesday in a case of money laundering and illegal dealing with 8.66 acres of tribal land involving former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, to five-day agency remand, people close to the developments said.
A civil court advocate aware of the development said, “ED had prayed for a seven-day remand, but the court allowed only five days.”
JMM leader Antu Tirkey, builder Priyaranjan Sahay, real estate dealer Vipin Singh, and cloth dealer Irshad Akhtar were sent to the Birsa Munda Central Jail on Wednesday after their arrest on Tuesday night following a day-long ED raid at their locations across Ranchi.
A civil court lawyer close to Tirkey and Singh said before the court granted a five-day ED remand, the move was opposed.
“We opposed the move, saying remand should not be more than two days in this case, and ED has already questioned them. Apart from this, Sahay is also not well,” the civil court lawyer said, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, ED on Thursday issued a press statement, giving official information on its raid, recovery, and arrests, besides the legal status of the matter.
“Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Ranchi Zonal Office, has conducted searches in one of the cases of land scams being investigated under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, and arrested four accused persons namely Priya Ranjan Sahay, Irshad Akhtar, Antu Tirkey, and Bipin Singh in the case of Bhanu Pratap Prasad and Others. In addition, one person, namely Afsar Ali, has also been arrested and taken into custody after being produced in Special PMLA Court on the strength of a Production Warrant. PMLA Court has remanded him to ED custody till 22.04.2024. In this case, another accused namely Md. Saddam Hussain is already in ED custody till 20.04.2024,” the ED’s statement read.
Stating the reason behind the four arrests, the ED in its statement said, “All these six persons have been arrested for their role in forgery, tampering, and fabrication of land records, thus changing the nature of lands which are designated as nonsaleable under the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act), legislation to protect the land rights of tribal and marginalized communities. During the investigation, the active involvement of government officials of the land revenue department located in Ranchi and Kolkata has also surfaced. Investigation revealed that some of the lands acquired through such falsification and forgery by the above-stated accused persons are under the illegal possession of Hemant Soren, Ex-C.M. of Jharkhand.”
According to the official statement, Hemant Soren and Bhanu Pratap Prasad, a revenue official and custodian of original government records, were earlier arrested for acquiring, possessing, and concealing the proceeds of crime in the nature of an immovable property admeasuring 8.8 acres at Bariyatu, Ranchi.
“Prosecution Complaint was filed on 30.03.2024 against them and four other accused persons for their roles in aiding and abetting Hemant Soren in his unlawful acquisition and possession of the said property.
“The aforesaid property worth ₹31 crore (government value) was also provisionally attached by the ED. Subsequently, Saddam Hussain was arrested on 09.04.2024 for involvement in forgery and falsification of land records.”
The statement further said that the ED initiated money laundering investigations in five land scams with a similar modus operandi based on multiple FIRs registered by Jharkhand Police and Kolkata Police against several persons, including government officials.
Investigation revealed that a racket of land mafia is active in Jharkhand, which is involved in tampering with the land records in Ranchi and Kolkata, the statement said.
“Original land records of ownership are either tampered with or concealed to facilitate the unlawful acquisition/possession/ use of landed properties. Subsequently, based on forged land records, such land parcels are sold to other persons,” the statement added.
Regarding searches and their outcome, the central agency said it had earlier carried out 51 searches and 9 surveys, and incriminating evidence like forged seals of the land revenue department, forged land deeds, records of the distribution of proceeds of crime, photographs doing forgery, evidence of giving bribes to government officials etc. were seized.
Searches have resulted in the recovery and seizure of ₹1.25 crore (approx.) of cash and further freezing of ₹3.56 crore worth of balance in bank accounts, the central agency said, adding that in the cases of land scams, ED has provisionally attached tainted land parcels worth ₹266 crore (commercial value).