RANCHI: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday arrested the key conspirators in the Rs 100 crore Bokaro land scam case - Izhar Hussain and Akhtar Hussain - for the first time.
The duo is accused of fraudulently selling 103 acres of forest and revenue land in Bokaro in 2012. According to the CID, the land mafia, in connivance with employees of the zonal office and some officials of BSL, allegedly forged documents to facilitate the illegal sale of government land to private parties.
The land originally belonged to Bokaro Steel Plant but was later returned to the Forest Department. The case is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) along with the CID and is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
Officials in CID informed that this is the first time that the “main conspirators” were held in the case.
Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta also confirmed the arrests, saying that the matter is quite old, but for the first time the key conspirators have been arrested.
“A land was transferred illegally by making fake documents in Bokaro, in which FIR was lodged by the police which was later taken over the CID. The key conspirators, Izhar Hussain and Akhtar Hussain, who are also brothers, have been arrested from Bokaro and were sent to judicial custody on Saturday,” said DGP Anurag Gupta.
Both of the accused will be taken on remand and interrogated thoroughly in order to get into the details of the matter, he added.
The complaint in this regard was filed by Rudra Pratap Singh, Forester in Charge and Forest Guard of the Bokaro Forest Division. The investigation later revealed that officials and land mafia had jointly sold 117 acres of forest land in Tetulia, Bokaro, using fake documents.
During the initial investigation, the CID found that the land mafia and the BSL employees together had manipulated the land records by not properly handing over the land to the Forest Department. The handover was not documented, allowing several individuals, including members of the land mafia, to take advantage of the situation.
Later, on the instructions of DGP Anurag Gupta, the case was officially handed over to the CID, which began its investigation based on case number 32/2024 registered at Sector 12 police station in Bokaro.
According to CID officials, as the investigation progresses, several senior officials, government employees, and members of the land mafia are likely to come under its purview.