Supreme Court seeks bank statement of accused to ascertain transactions in Jharkhand land 'scam'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the bank statements of an accused to ascertain the financial transactions related to the sale of 4.55 acre land of the Indian Army in Ranchi allegedly by creating false property documents.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is out on bail, is also an accused in a money laundering case arising from the alleged land scam.

The top court was hearing an appeal of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the grant of bail to co-accused Dilip Ghosh by the Jharkhand High Court on November 28, 2023.

"You produce the bank statement (of the accused) of the relevant period by today evening itself. It will come up for hearing tomorrow (Friday)," a bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma told senior advocate S.Nagamuthu, representing Dilip Ghosh.

The top court refused to list the case for hearing on a later date as sought by Nagamuthu, saying it will be heard on Friday itself.

As per the federal anti-money laundering probe agency, a parcel of 4.55 acres belonging to Indian Army was sold off by non-owners by creating falsified documents.

It said Afshar Ali, a resident of Bariatu in the Jharkhand capital, and his accomplices prepared a fake deed at the office of RoA (Registrar of Assurances (Records), Kolkata in the name of a Prafulla Bagchi claiming that the land belonged to the latter.

Some of the accused obtained a holding number in respect of the property and offered to sell it to M/s. Jagatbandhu Tea Estate Pvt Ltd (JTEPL) of which Dilip Ghosh is a director.

The JTEPL purchased the property for an agreed amount of Rs 7 crore as against the prevailing value of over Rs 20 crore since there was an ongoing litigation with regard to the said property with the Indian Army, the high court noted in its order.

It was claimed that cheques were issued by JTEPL in favour of accused Pradeep Bagchi. A cheque for Rs 25 lakh was encashed, and as per mutual understanding, the remaining amount was payable upon handing over the physical possession of the property in question, the high court had said.

The ED has been claiming collusion between the accused and wants to prosecute them for alleged money laundering.

On Wednesday, the bench asked Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, whether the probe agency has call details of Ghosh and Bagchi.

The probe agency said it does not have them but it will clarify this aspect later.

The law officer said the sale deed was for a total amount of Rs 7 crore but it does not have any reference to the part payment of Rs 25 Lakhs to Bagchi.

"Just to get out of this, they are now saying Rs 25 Lakhs is paid but it is not paid," Raju said, adding "Though the sale deed mentions cheques for payment of 7 crore, but none of the cheques were encashed. If there was any agreement of payment, the sale deed would have been maintained." "How did you make the payment of Rs 7 crore...The question is that if it is shown that these payments were made by issuing cheques then the sale deed talks about that the cheques were not encashed," the bench said.

When Nagamuthu attempted to explain, the bench shot back saying, "Don't make such mock submissions here. We are not going to accept this." The money laundering case emanated from an FIR lodged by Jharkhand police on June 4, 2022 at Bariatu Police Station in Ranchi under sections 420 (cheating), 467 ((forgery of valuable security) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the IPC against Pradeep Bagchi, a local resident.

The FIR was based on a complaint by Dilip Sharma, tax collector of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation alleging that Bagchi obtained two holding numbers of the land by submitting forged papers. Later they allegedly fraudulently sold the properties.