Rajkot/Ahmedabad: The Enforcement Directorate’s Ahmedabad zonal office on Friday attached assets worth Rs 3.97 crore of Jayesh Ranpariya (Patel), prime accused in the Rs 100-crore land grabbing case in Jamnagar. The central agency attached 24 properties (plots and flats) and bank accounts of Patel and his associates in the case.In November 2016, Ranpariya was booked for money laundering in November 2016 on the basis of two FIRs registered by the Jamnagar police against him and 13 others. The case is considered to be the biggest forgery scams in Saurashtra.According to the ED, Ranpariya had usurped two properties which had market value of Rs 135 crore. The FIR stated that Ranpariya made fake power of attorney in the name of his associates. Later, he settled the matter with the complainants in lieu of Rs 7 crore which was credited in the accounts of Ranpariya’s associates.Many FIRs have been registered against Ranpariya at various police stations in similar cases. Through this modus-operandi, Ranpariya is believed to have amassed huge properties.The properties attached include 24 plots and flats of Ranpariya which are estimated to be worth Rs 4.5 crore. Further, the bank balance of co-accused in the case Chandrakant Vallabhbhai Sanghani, Jaman Devjibhai Moliya, Pravin Purshottambhai Chovatiya and Mayur Maganbhai Sabhaya which total to around Rs 3 crore was also attached by the ED.Ranpariya is also named as accused in the murder of Jamnagar-based lawyer Kirit Joshi (42) who was stabbed to death by two assailants in the Town Hall area of Jamnagar on the night of April 28 when he came down from his office in Jyot Tower.Joshi’s brother Ashok alleged that Ranpariya had hatched a plot to kill Joshi as he had exposed his involvement in the land scam unearthed in November 2016. Ranpariya was arrested in the land grabbing case and had to spend few months in jail. The Ahmedabad crime branch, which was initially investigating the case, had said that Ranpariya had fled to Dubai about a week before Joshi was killed and plotted the murder from there.

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