Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 90 immovable properties, luxurious vehicles, jewellery and cash worth ₹51.40 crore belonging to IAS officer Ranu Sahu, MLAs Devender Yadav and Chandradev Prasad Rai, coal trader Suryakant Tiwari, R P Singh, Vinod Tiwari and Ram Gopal Agarwal in the illegal coal levy extortion scam of Chhattisgarh.
This is the second round of attachment proceedings in the scam. Earlier, the ED had attached properties worth ₹170 crore allegedly belonging to Suryakant Tiwari, IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, Saumya Chaurasia — a Chhattisgarh Civil Service Officer who was posted at Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s office, Sunil Agarwal and others, said the agency. The worth of total assets attached in this case has reached approximately ₹221.5 crore, the ED has calculated.
During the investigations, ED alleged, direct evidence of the financial linkages between bureaucrat Sahu, politicians Yadav and Rai, and businessmen with kingpin Suryakant Tiwari were established. The investigators, stated the agency, have identified assets created by accused through layering of the proceeds of crime rolling out attachment proceedings under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The ED initiated the money laundering investigation last year based on an FIR lodged on the complaint of the Income Tax department. Searches at more than 145 premises have been conducted and so far 9 accused persons were arrested under PMLA. All of them are in the judicial custody.
Two chargesheets were filed on December 9, 2022 and January 30, this year, in a Special Court (PMLA) against Suryakant Tiwari, Saumya Chaurasia, Sameer Vishnoi and others.
The ED claims that its “investigation has established that proceeds of crime worth ₹540 crore were acquired in this extortion racket”.
Further investigation is under progress to unearth more links in the coal levy scam.