Chhavi Ranjan, a 2011 batch IAS officer, has served as the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi and was posted at the Department of social welfare, when he was arrested by the ED.

The case in which he has been granted bail involves the fraudulent purchase and sale of land located in Bariatu under the Bargai circle in Ranchi, which was under the possession of the Army. Ranjan was Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi from July 15, 2020 to July 11, 2022.

Notably, before his arresting, the Enforcement Directorate had conducted raids on 21 locations linked to Chhavi Ranjan spread across Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal and had unearthed a huge land scam by a gang of scamsters having expertise in preparing fake documents, falsifying and forging original documents in Ranchi.

Ranjan was the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi when stone mining lease was allegedly granted to Chief Minister Hemant Soren for stone mining at Angara in the outskirts of Ranchi.

Apart from former Deputy Commissioner and IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, the ED has also named prominent businessman Vishnu Agrawal, revenue sub-inspector of Bargai circle Bhanu Pratap Prasad, Pradeep Bagchi, land dealers Afsar Ali, Imtiaz Khan, Talha Khan, Faiyaz Khan, Mohammad Saddam, Amit Agrawal, and Dilip Ghosh as accused in the case.