RANCHI: After being summoned for the third time, ex-Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi and IAS Chhavi Ranjan reached Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Zonal Office in Ranchi on Monday for questioning in connection with a number of land scam cases.
Ranjan on Friday failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which had earlier rejected his plea seeking two weeks’ time to appear before it. The ED, instead, had directed Ranjan to appear before its zonal office in Ranchi at 4 pm on Friday, but Ranjan failed to follow the deadline too.
ED sources had claimed that the IAS officer has sought time on the ground that he is already on ‘paternity leave’ from April 17 to May 1 and hence will not be able to before the central investigation agency. Incidentally, ED had issued a summons to Ranjan on April 17 for the first time, the same day went on leave.
Notably, ED had issued a summons to 2011 batch IAS officer, Chhavi Ranjan, on April 17 asking him to appear on April 21 and reply to the questions related to the illegal transfer of 4.55 acres of land belonging to Indian Army on the basis of fake papers and fake owner to Jagat Bandhu Tea estate. He is also supposed to be grilled on one acre of land near Cheshire home which was transferred to businessman Vishnu Agrawal adopting the same modus operandi.
The role of Ranjan in transferring several pieces of prime lands had was questioned earlier by the then Divisional Commissioner NM Kulkarni in his report sent to the state government. The revenue department, however, is said to have had turned a blind eye to all these reports. Ranjan was Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi from July 15, 2020 to July 11, 2022.
He is the second IAS officer in Jharkhand against whom the central investigation agency has conducted raids in the past one year.
Notably, the Enforcement Directorate had conducted raids on April 13 on 21 locations linked to Chhavi Ranjan spread across Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal and had unearthed a huge land scam by a gang of scamsters having expertise in preparing fake documents, falsifying and forging original documents in Ranchi.
The ED had already arrested seven persons, including a circle inspector and land brokers and is interrogating them. Apparently, the agency wants to confront Ranjan with the revelations made by the seven arrested persons during interrogations.