Ranchi land scam case: SC dismisses land developer's bail plea

New Delhi, June 25 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a bail plea filed by a land developer, an accused in a money laundering case linked to the forgery of Army and government land in Ranchi.

“The proceeds of crime are created directly or indirectly from a transaction relating to the predicate offence. Don’t think this is a case for grant of bail,” a vacation bench presided over by Justice Abhay S. Oka told the counsel representing accused Talha Khan.

“We don’t find that at this stage a case is made out for grant of bail. Hence, the special leave petition is dismissed,” ordered the Bench also comprising Justice Rajesh Bindal, observing that it is always open for the petitioner to file bail petition afresh if the trial is delayed.

Earlier, the Jharkhand High Court had dismissed the bail plea filed by accused Khan after noting that copies of the sale agreement and sale deeds were recovered from his premises and he transferred Rs 44 lakh into the bank account of his company F2R Construction Pvt. Ltd.

A bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad of the high court said that prima-facie it appeared that the petitioner was also the beneficiary of proceeds of crime and as such the part of the racket involved in fraudulent activities.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested several persons for the alleged purchase and sale of Army land.

Several deeds, fake documents, government registers of zonal offices, etc., were recovered during the simultaneous raids conducted by the ED at 21 locations belonging to 18 people in Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal.