As part of a money laundering investigation into the alleged illegal occupation and sale of defence land in Jharkhand, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches in about a dozen locations in West Bengal and Jharkhand on Friday, according to officials. The case involves the alleged fraudulent sale of a 4.45 acre plot of Army land in Bariatu, Ranchi.
Following a departmental investigation into land records that, according to officials, suggested collusion between a small number of Ranchi and Kolkata-based businessmen and Jharkhand government officials in the sale of the land using forged documents, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation filed a police complaint in April.
An official who spoke on the record claimed that the ED began its investigation into the case last month.
Teams of ED investigators conducted four raids in Kolkata and the nearby city of Bidhannagar in Bengal. A second team searched the properties of businessman Amar Agarwal’s brother, Amit Agrawal, in Sector V while the first squad raided the home of Amit Agrawal at HB-65B. Both regions are part of Bidhannagar.
Amit Agarwal is presently being held in judicial custody in a prison in Ranchi. He was arrested by the ED in connection with a money laundering investigation after Rajiv Kumar, a lawyer for the Jharkhand High Court, was arrested in August on allegations of extortion. In Ranchi, at least eight places were searched.
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