ED gets 3-day remand of 2 businessmen in Ranchi land scam case

RANCHI: The special PMLA court on Friday granted three-day remand of Kolkata based-businessmen and alleged “power broker” Amit Agrawal and Dilip Ghosh to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the illegal sale of 4.55 acres of Army-owned land in a posh area of the city.
The agency arrested Agrawal and Ghosh in connection with the case on Wednesday night and produced them before the court on Thursday, seeking a five-day remand. The court, however, postponed the arguments for remand till Friday.
In the remand petition, the ED alleged that a fake ownership of the 4.55-acre land was created and it was sold to Jagatbandhu Tea Estate Private Limited. The central agency said Ghosh is the director of the company while Agarwal is the beneficial owner.
The ED further said the then Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan assisted the accused persons in acquiring the property by overlooking the records available at his office.
The ED further said the accused persons were withholding facts related to the scam and may create hindrances in further investigations.
It said the data acquired during the investigations may be tampered with if the accused persons are not interrogated on time.
The central agency also said the interrogation was needed to ascertain the money trail and the role of other persons involved in laundering the proceeds of crime.
Appearing on behalf of the accused, advocate Bidhyut Chourasia argued that the ED has not produced supporting documents regarding the allegations like statements of banks and witnesses with the petition.
He said, “The court allowed three-day remand with the conditions that the accused persons would be allowed to meet their advocate once a day.”
Chourasia also added that they would undergo medical check-ups before they were produced in court.