ED arrests Chhattisgarh CM's deputy secretary, takes into custody for 4 days

A special court designated for trying cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA sent her in EDs custody for four days.The officer, belonging to the state adminstrative service, was produced before Additional District and Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput in the evening after her arrest, said Chaurasias lawyer Faizal Rizvi.

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested Saumya Chaurasia, a deputy secretary rank officer posted in Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's office, in connection with an alleged coal levy scam in the state. A special court designated for trying cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) sent her in ED's custody for four days.

The officer, belonging to the state adminstrative service, was produced before Additional District and Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput in the evening after her arrest, said Chaurasia's lawyer Faizal Rizvi. The ED sought a 14-day custody of her but was granted only four days with her by the special court after it heard the arguments, he added. The ED, while seeking her remand, mentioned an alleged land purchase by the officer which came under the purview of the Income tax department but she has already given clarification about this deal, Rizvi said. The ED presumed that the money used for land purchase might have come from the alleged coal levy scam, he said. ED lawyer Saurabh Kumar Pandey claimed that the central agency had enough evidence against Chaurasia in the case.

Chaurasia, considered a powerful bureaucrat, was arrested under the criminal sections of the PMLA after questioning.

She was taken for a health check-up by ED officials accompanied by a CRPF escort after the arrest, with local media following them. The officer has been on the radar of the Income tax department which had earlier raided her premises. The ED had in October carried out multi-city raids in the state as part of its probe. Since the raids, it has arrested IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, coal trader Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari, and Sunil Agrawal, another coal businessman. All four are in judicial custody. The money laundering investigation was launched after the ED took cognisance of an Income tax department complaint. It pertained to ''a massive scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen,'' the ED has said. Baghel had last week accused the probe agency of crossing its limits and treating people inhumanely. According to a statement issued by the ED earlier, the ''main kingpin of this scam is Suryakant Tiwari and his associates, who 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 ED said the proceeds from the crime were being used by the accused to invest in benami assets and bribing officials to influence senior officers. The illegal money was also being used ''by or on behalf of'' political executives of the state, it said. It said the agency was investigating ''the entire gamut of this conspiracy including the main kingpin, the role of senior officials who facilitated this scam with impunity and the beneficiaries of the illegal proceeds of crime.'' The agency said it has seized ''unaccounted'' for cash amounting to Rs 4.5 crore, gold jewellery, bullion and other valuables worth around Rs 2 crore in its raids.

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