SC dismisses former Ranchi DC’s bail plea in army land sale case

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed former Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan’s bail plea in a case related to the sale of army land in the Jharkhand capital.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and S C Sharma said it was not inclined to interfere with the Jharkhand High Court order rejecting the bail in October last year.

Ranjan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate after several raids were conducted in the state capital on May 4, is alleged to have been instrumental in the sale of army land measuring 4.55 acres in Ranchi’s Bariatu area.

Three land parcels at Cheshire Home Road, Pugru and Siram, all in Ranchi, with a commercial value of Rs 161.64 crore, have been provisionally attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED had said last month.

These land parcels, it said, were “mutated fraudulently in favour of land mafia in connivance with the officers of the land revenue department”. The ED has alleged that a “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by mafia was going on in Jharkhand”.

Ranjan had moved the high court seeking his release on grounds of non-submission of the charge sheet within the stipulated time.

The high court observed that there has been no anomaly by the investigating agency in concluding the probe and the charge sheet has already been filed, hence there is no ground for bail on that score.

The agency has arrested 14 people in the case. Ranjan, a 2011-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, had earlier served as director of the state social welfare department.