It was a day of high political drama in Jharkhand as Hemant Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, barely a few hours after he submitted his resignation as the chief minister amidst questioning by sleuths for more than six hours at his residence in Ranchi on Wednesday.
The ED team resumed Soren’s questioning after he stepped down, before arresting the JMM leader in the land scam—a curious case of at least 35 fake sale deeds of registration of landed properties, including defence land, of undivided Bihar (Jharkhand was a part of Bihar at that time) in Kolkata, causing a loss to the government exchequer running into crores.
The Jharkhand land scam is a unique case involving land records that pre-date Independence and displays a unique modus operandi to acquire vast swathes of land allegedly with the collusion of top government functionaries in Soren’s regime.
The ED began its investigation scanning land records since Independence and even prior to it to understand how several ink pens, brushes, syringes were used to copy dates that go back to July 15, 1939, to match and mirror images in sale deeds entered in registers. Until 1991, the registration of Bihar properties, which included the present Jharkhand, was done in Kolkata at the office of registrar of assurances. But after 1991, it became mandatory that the same be done at the jurisdictional land registration offices.
According to ED sleuths, the accused persons deliberately manufactured ‘’back dated’’ deeds of the targeted landed properties, from Kolkata, and planted it in the original registers available at the records of Registrar of Assurances (Records) in Kolkata. After planting the fake deeds, ED officials claimed, the accused persons used to obtain the certified copies of those deeds, and then dispose them.
Mobile phones and other digital and forensic evidence recovered during searches from the arrested accused threw up several such images of old original registers in Kolkata including visual images of the ink pens, syringes and white papers used to white wash the alleged crime which, in turn, took the ED sleuths to the doorstep of the beneficiaries of cash flows that were noted in registers of the accused. The cash trail proved that the alleged land scam had led to subsequent acquisition of proceeds of crime by key functionaries in the government leading up to the CM residence, said ED sources.
One such link took ED sleuths to the doorstep of Chhavi Ranjan, ex-Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi, an arrested accused in the case, who has been linked to the land acquisition scam, including the defence land, prompting slapping of charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 by the ED. While Chhavi has denied any knowledge of the alleged scam and purported links with the arrested accused like Amit Kumar Agarwal and Prem Prakash, statements of other key accused in the case revealed that Prakash had called Chhavi for unblocking a large parcel of land measuring 1.28 acres for which Prakash allegedly demanded Rs 1 crore on behalf of Chhavi, as per ED documents. This is one of several such instances of involvement, according to the ED.
Another accused told ED sleuths that several meetings were held at the camp office of Chhavi, linking him to the illegal activity and displaying the proximity of the accused with the chief minister, involvement of circle officers, and misuse of power by the government officials, which prompted the sleuths to dig further.
The ED probe found that a very large parcel of land measuring 7.16 acres at Hehal near Ranchi (belonging to the defence forces) was also a victim of fake deed and brokers who tore the original records after removing them from the original registers at the Rachi office.
The ED will produce Soren in court on Thursday to seek his further custody for questioning to shed more light on the case.
Sources in ED said Soren’s arrest is based on material and forensic evidence gathered over several months and statements of arrested accused in the land scam case. While Soren was not mentioned in the original case registered by the ED in October 2022, based on an FIR filed in Rachi in June that year, it is likely that he will be named an accused once the ED completes its quizzing. Soren had skipped seven summons issued by the ED earlier, claiming it is a political conspiracy to topple his government.