Jharkhand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an investigation into alleged illegal land deals, was remanded to six-day ED custody by a special PMLA court on Saturday, according to an official.
The Enforcement Directorate requested ten days of custody to question the former Ranchi deputy commissioner, the official added.
Ranjan’s lawyer Abhishek Krishna Gupta stated that the court had ordered the 2011-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre to six days of ED custody, with a further appearance scheduled for May 12.
Ranjan was taken into ED custody late on Thursday after a 10-hour interrogation, and was subsequently sent to Central Jail, Hotwar by the special court on Friday.
The investigating officer under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) recorded a statement from Ranjan in connection with the case.
The ED had also questioned Ranjan for approximately 10 hours on April 24 as part of their money laundering probe into the alleged illegal land deals. Additionally, Ranjan was briefly questioned on April 13 during searches conducted at his premises and others in Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal.
Following these raids, the ED arrested seven individuals, including a Jharkhand government officer.
The central agency is currently investigating over a dozen land deals, including one involving defense land, where a group of mafias, middlemen, and bureaucrats are believed to have colluded in falsifying deeds and documents dating back to 1932. As a result of this fraud, land belonging to the poor and marginalized communities was unlawfully acquired.
This is the second instance where a Jharkhand cadre IAS officer has been investigated by the ED. Last year, the agency arrested 2000-batch IAS officer Pooja Singhal in a money laundering case related to the alleged misappropriation of funds from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Khunti, as well as other suspicious financial transactions.
