‘ ₹500cr in 16 months’: ED says govt officials helped Chhattisgarh businessman collect illegal coal levy

RAIPUR The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that Chhattisgarh-based businessman Suryakant Tiwari with the help of government officials collected an illegal coal levy of “ ₹500 crore in 16 months” and part of the ill-gotten proceeds was used for “election funding and bribing officers”

RAIPUR The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that Chhattisgarh-based businessman Suryakant Tiwari with the help of government officials collected an illegal coal levy of “ ₹500 crore in 16 months” and part of the ill-gotten proceeds was used for “election funding and bribing officers”.

The 12-page remand application by the ED claimed that the money collected was being used to “bribe government servants and politicians” (Bloomberg)

An illegal levy of ₹25 per tonne was charged for transporting coal, the federal investigation agency has claimed.

In an application seeking remand of three persons -- IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, businessmen Sunil Agrawal, who owns the Indermani Group, and Laxmikant Tiwari, uncle of absconding businessman Suryakant Tiwari -- on Thursday, the ED detailed the purported modus operandi of how the levy was collected through a “network of agents” in coal mines with help from the administration.

The court sent the three accused to eight days in ED custody.

“The delivery orders (DOs) were issued only after the illegal levy was paid and this extortion syndicate is run in a well-planned conspiracy,” the application said. The order is necessary for a truck carrying coal to leave a mine.

The 12-page remand application by the ED claimed that the money collected was being used to “bribe government servants and politicians” and added that parts of this money were being used to “finance election expenditure”, without naming any political party.

“The investigation done so far also reveals that the large part of such money has been channelled through layered transactions in order to project it as untainted money and brought into the mainstream of the society by investing the same to acquire properties and coal washeries, etc,” the ED said.

Elaborating the role of Vishnoi, the ED claimed that he issued an order to change the pre-existing online process of obtaining coal transportation permits manually, thereby enabling illegal levies.

The ED said the income tax department found a diary during its raid at the residence of Rajnikant Tiwari, a relative of Suryakant Tiwari, which mentioned that ₹50 lakh was deposited in the name of Vishnoi through one Roshan Kumar Singh on March 9. “It is clear that Vishnoi is also part of the conspiracy hatched for the illegal levy of coal,” the ED alleged.

Vishnoi’s advocate Syed Zeeshan, however, refuted the claims and said, “Firstly, my client did everything as director of Geology and Mining Department in compliance with the law and therefore there is nothing illegal. Secondly, he was not connected with any accused related to any crime which is stated by the ED”.

The directorate also said that a systematic syndicate of cash collectors was set up by Suryakant Tiwari who had access to the offices of district magistrates. No miner/transporter could obtain the NOC (mandated by Vishnoi’s orders) until they paid the money to these cash collectors and the collectors relayed “money received” messages to the mining section of collector’s offices, the ED said.

Lawyer Vijay Agarwal, who defended Sunil Agrawal in court on Thursday, told the media that the ED was talking about some uncounted cash and said it was the job of the income tax department to deal with such offences.

Reacting to the ED action, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday questioned why the ED did not investigate corruption during the Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. “The raids are to destabilise non-BJP governments. ED raids are going on in every state where the BJP is not in power,” Baghel said.