Team Herald
PANJIM: The suspended Chief of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Goa Jitendra Ranjan, facing allegations of disproportionate assets, has failed to submit related documents to the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) countering the charge against him.
Ranjan’s family including his wife and mother-in-law, back at their native in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, has also come under the CBI scanner.
The then head of NCB, sub-zonal unit (Goa) is charged with amassing assets disproportionate to his income. Booked on September 25, 2018, Ranjan also faces allegations of operating bank accounts of his wife, daughters and his mother-in-law in which he personally credited the money through Cash Deposit Machine.
“Most of his assets were found to be acquired during his posting in Goa as the NCB Superintendent and as such the CBI conducted a check of his income from January 1, 2014 to August 31, 2018. He has acquired movable and immovable assets in his and his family members’ names. The assets are disproportionate to his known source of income,” an officer informed Herald.
While the NCB head office suspended Ranjan following the First Information Report, he was interrogated by the CBI ‘a number of times’ and asked to submit documents to substantiate that the assets are not disproportionate to his actual source of income.
“He has been suspended. CBI has interrogated him a number of times during when he was asked to furnish various documents to prove the charges against him are false. So far, CBI has not received these,” the source informed.
Ranjan joined the NCB as an intelligence officer in the year 2010 and completed nine years of service until the suspension. CBI had raided the premises of the officer after source information revealed that he indulged in corrupt activities and by abusing his official position, he acquired illegal assets in his name and his family members including that of two underage daughters and mother-in-law Vijay Lata.
Reliable sources revealed that he would operate the bank account of his wife Suprabha Sharma, daughters and Lata even for the account maintained in the two other states. “It is found that the ATM cards of Lata too are in possession of Ranjan and he used to carry out entire transaction in it, viz, debiting the account, crediting in RDs, creating fixed deposits, etc. Bulk deposits of cash were made by him into the account of his wife and mother-in-law on the same days, even late at night through cash deposit machines,” the investigation reveals.
The CBI probe states that Ranjan accumulated disproportionate assets of Rs 26.10 lakh approximately which amounts to 63 percent as against his actual source of income.
“So far he hasn’t given a satisfactory reply for such illegal enrichment,” said the officer. Herald tried to reach out to Ranjan but his phone was switched off.
