Chhattisgarh: ED attaches assets worth ₹2.66 crore linked to coal levy ‘scam’

The attached assets, comprising land parcels and residential flats, are linked to former CM Bhupesh Baghel’s deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia and her associate Nikhil Chandrakar.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached eight immovable properties worth ₹2.66 crore in connection with the alleged illegal coal levy racket in Chhattisgarh, officials said on Tuesday.

Representational image.

The attached assets, comprising land parcels and residential flats, are linked to former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia and her associate Nikhil Chandrakar. The agency said the properties were acquired in the names of their relatives using proceeds of crime generated from the illegal collection of coal levy and other extortion activities.

According to the ED, the action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, following investigations initiated on the basis of FIRs registered by the Bengaluru Police and the economic offences wing anti-corruption bureau (EOW-ACB), Raipur, as well as a prosecution complaint filed by the Income Tax Department.

The probe has revealed that between July 2020 and June 2022, a syndicate comprising private individuals, allegedly acting in connivance with senior politicians and bureaucrats, extorted money from coal transporters at the rate of ₹25 per tonne of coal transported. Officials claimed that around ₹540 crore was illegally collected during this period.

The ED said the alleged extorted cash, treated as proceeds of crime, was used to bribe government officials and politicians, fund election related expenses, and acquire movable and immovable assets.

So far, properties worth about ₹273 crore linked to the accused have been identified and attached in the case. The agency has arrested 11 people and filed five prosecution complaints before a special PMLA court against 35 accused persons, including politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, officials said.