RANCHI: Days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on multiple locations including premises linked with a few state government officials in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged Land scam case, former Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Babu Lal Marandi has labelled serious allegation against the state administration.
The BJP Jharkhand unit president in a series of post on social media has claimed that a lawyer Sujit Kumar has been kept in illegal detention for the past 8 days. Marandi has backed up his claim citing, that if his allegations regarding Kumar’s detention are untrue then why the state police has yet not issued a denial about the same.
The circle officers (COs) have given crores of money to this lawyer, from where did the COs gets such money, doesn’t it confirmed the allegation labelled earlier that a land scam worth billions of rupees has taken place in Jharkhand, especially in capital Ranchi, alleged Marandi.
मुख्यमंत्री हेमंत सोरेन जी,
जानकारी मिल रही है कि घूसखोर अंचलाधिकारियों को ईडी की चार्जशीट से बचाने का झाँसा देकर ज़मीन घोटालेबाज़ बेईमान अंचलाधिकारियों से करोड़ों रूपये ठगने वाला सुजीत कुमार को राँची पुलिस के ग़ैरक़ानूनी और रहस्यमय तरीक़े से हिरासत में रखने का आज आठवाँ दिन है।… https://t.co/0kqIkSg8wl pic.twitter.com/XulDllGLav— Babulal Marandi (@yourBabulal) October 15, 2024
He further has asked that if the said lawyer was provided with money by circle officers (COs) to manage the case, then why the government has yet not arrested any COs in the matter. Marandi has further alleged that a plot is being hatched to save the corrupt officers by longing the investigation into the matter.
Who is Sujit Kumar
A Jharkhand based lawyer Sujit Kumar recently turn heads after a land broker/buisnessman Sanjay Kumar Pandey approached the police with a complaint, alleging Kumar for cheating and extorting crores of money from him and other government officials for managing/influencing ED’s officials to avoid legal proceeding against them in the alleged land scam case.
According to the FIR filed by Pandey, Kumar had allegedly promised Pandey and other officials namely, Diwakar Prasad Dwivedi, former CO and incumbent District Transport Officer, Jay Kumar Ram, CO, Kanke and Prabhat Bhushan, former CO, Namkum to remove their names from the ED’s charge sheet.
Following the deal, all of these individuals have allegedly provide a sum of Rs 5.71 crore to Kumar to remove their names from the ED’s charge sheet. However, the deal did not materialize as ED named all the aforementioned individuals in the charge sheet.
Pandey and other officials then allegedly requested Kumar to return the money against which the latter provided them with bank cheques and his vehicle as security. Kumar further assured Pandey and others to return the money in instalments.
Though despite of the assurance and initial agreement, tension escalated between Pandey and Kumar after which the former approached the police with a complaint against Kumar. In reply of Pandey’s complaint, Kumar too lodged a counter complaint against Pandey and others for allegedly abducting and extorting money from him.
ED’s recent raids and investigation into alleged land scam
Meanwhile, acting on swiftly the ED conducted raids on multiple locations in Dhanbad, Bihar’s Patna and Ranchi on October 7. The premises searched during the raids included of DTO Divwedi’s residence in Dhanbad from where the officials recovered a huge amount of cash.
Further the agency officials also raided locations linked to Kumar and Sanjay Pandey during the crackdown. Pandey is considered close to Kamlesh Kumar, a real estate businessman who has already been arrested by the ED in connection with the money laundering case.
Notably ED is investigating money laundering cases linked with alleged land scam in the state. The agency filed a charge sheet in connection with one of the cases in March this year in which the agency has also named incumbent Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
It is worth mentioning here, that the state is all set to hold assembly polls on 81 seats under two phases on November 13 and 20, where while the ruling alliance led by Chief Minister is eyeing a return to the power, the main opposition BJP is hoping to make a comeback in the state, banking on issues such as infiltration, unemployment and corruption.
