Chhattisgarh: Court extends judicial custody of IAS officer, 3 others in money laundering case

A special court in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur on Friday extended by 12 days the judicial custody of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and three others arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the alleged extortion of money from mining transporters.

The court of additional district and session judge Ajay Singh Rajput ordered to produce the four accused before it on November 23.

On expiry of the judicial remand of IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and two other accused, Sunil Agrawal and Laxmikant Tiwari, and the ED's custody of coal trader Suryakant Tiwari, they were produced in the court on Thursday, said Faizal Rizvi, the counsel for Suryakant Tiwari and Laxmikant Tiwari.

The probe agency had on Thursday sought time to submit its reply, following which the court ordered one-day judicial custody of all four arrested persons, he said.

''We had prayed before the court that the Karnataka police had registered an FIR (first information report) against Suryakant Tiwari (when he was in Bengaluru) in July for allegedly trying to destroy important documents and electronic gadgets and obstructing government officials from performing their duties after the Income-Tax (I-T) department carried out searches in his premises,'' Rizvi said.

Suryakant Tiwari has secured a stay from the Karnataka High Court in the case registered by the police there.

The ED's case is entirely based on the information shared by the I-T department and when the Karnataka HC has given a stay on the I-T's case in Bengaluru, then the ED's investigation should also be put on hold, the lawyer said.

After hearing the ED's arguments on Friday, the court rejected the plea to stay the investigation being carried out by the agency and extended the judicial custody of all four accused by 12 days, he said.

The ED had arrested Vishnoi, businessman Agrawal and Laxmikant Tiwari — uncle of Suryakant Tiwari, on October 13 after it launched multi-city raids in the state on October 11.

Suryakant Tiwari surrendered before the court on October 29, following which the ED got his custody for 12 days for questioning.

The ED had, in a statement, claimed a ''massive scam'' was taking place in coal transportation in Chhattisgarh, under which a cartel of politicians, officers and others was allegedly running a parallel system of extorting illegal levy, which is generating Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore daily.

The probe agency alleged that Vishnoi, a Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer of the 2009-batch who was working as the CEO of the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society, and his wife were found in possession of unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 47 lakh and 4 kg gold jewellery.

The money laundering investigation was launched after the ED took cognisance of a complaint by the I-T department.

The ED has claimed the kingpin of this scam is Suryakant Tiwari and his associates entered into a criminal conspiracy to run a parallel system of extorting illegal levy on coal and were doing illegal and unaccounted cash movement.

The probe agency had said it has seized unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 4.5 crore, gold jewellery, bullion and other valuables worth around Rs 2 crore during the raids.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)