6 accused in land scam sent to jail

Ranchi: The special PMLA court on Thursday forwarded six accused persons named in a land scam, which are being investigated by the enforcement directorate (ED), to the Birsa Munda Central Jail.
The accused persons — Bargain circle inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad and land dealers Pradip Bagchi, Afsar Ali, Imtiaz Ahmad, Talha Khan, and Md Saddam Hussain — were remanded in three-day ED custody by the court on Monday for interrogation.
At the end of the remand, the ED got the accused medically examined and produced them before the court. The central agency said it has gathered sufficient information related to the scams from them and added that it would pray for further remand, if the need arises.
So far, the ED has questioned the six accused for 12 days after taking them in remand. The ED recorded their statements and confronted them with the director of social welfare Chhavi Ranjan, who was summoned by the agency on Monday.
Ranjan and the accused were asked about the scams, which took place during the former’s tenure as the deputy commissioner of Ranchi.
The ED had arrested seven persons after conducting searches in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal on April 13. One of the accused persons, Faiyaz Khan, was sent to jail.
The ED also conducted raids at five places in Ranchi and Jamshedpur on Wednesday and froze around 50 bank accounts apart from seizing land documents in connection with the scam.