C’garh CM dy secy used extorted money as poll funding, ED tells court
RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia, along with kingpin Suryakant Tiwari and other government officials, extorted up to ₹500 crore as an illegal levy from coal and mining transporters in the state and used it for “election funding”, the Enforcement Directorate told a Raipur court while seeking Chaurasia’s remand on Friday. The court subsequently sent Chaurasia to four-day ED custody.
Chaurasia, a 2008-batch state administrative service officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, was arrested on Friday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , and later produced in the court of additional session judge Ajay Singh Rajput. Chaurasia’s lawyer Faizal Rizvi has dismissed the charges. “All allegations of the ED are based on presumptions. There is no concrete evidence against my client,” he said. Seeking Chaurasia’s custody, the ED told the court: “Investigation so far reveals that she (Chaurasia) has bought properties in the name of her family members by infusing this illegally earned cash from coal levy extortion.” It also pointed out that Chaurasia is an officer posted in the CM’S office and is known to be close to politicians.
“The role of the political executives and other senior functionaries of the CMO and state’s bureaucracy needs to be ascertained and she needs to be questioned regarding their role in this extortion racket... large amounts of payments made in cash out of the extorted coal levy are still shrouded in mystery because of the use of code words by Tiwari,” the ED told the court.