Coal levy scam: Raipur court sends bureaucrat Saumya Chaurasia to 5-day judicial custody

A special court in Raipur on Wednesday sent bureaucrat Saumya Chaurasia, a deputy secretary posted in Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's office, to judicial custody till December 19 after the end of her ED remand in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal levy scam in the state.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput sent Chaurasia to five-day judicial custody and she will be produced in the court on December 19, said bureaucrat's lawyer Faizal Rizvi.

Chaurasia was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after questioning on December 2.

The money laundering investigation was launched after the ED took cognisance of an Income Tax department complaint.

The financial crimes probe agency in October carried out multi-city raids in the state as part of its probe. It also arrested IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, coal trader Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari and coal businessman Sunil Agrawal, and named them accused in the alleged scam.

Last Friday, the ED filed a prosecution complaint (charge-sheet) before the court against Vishnoi, Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari and Agrawal.

The case pertained to ''a massive scam in which an 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.

Flats, jewellery, cash, coal washeries and plots belonging to Chaurasia, Vishnoi and other accused in the case have been attached, the central agency said on Saturday.