IT, ED attempts to defame Chhattisgarh government: Bhupesh Baghel

With enforcement agencies raiding his political advisor and Officer on Special Duty, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday sarcastically remarked that Income Tax (IT) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) would be contesting coming State elections on behalf of the BJP.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Baghel also alleged that the Centre was using the Income Tax (IT) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to defame the State government and create hurdles in its functioning. He said that ‘incompetent ED’ is venturing into homes of people, at times without FIR copies, threatening and physically assaulting them to sign on papers in different scams.

• Also read: ED arrests Arun Pati Tripathi, director of the Chhattisgarh Marketing Corporation, on corruption charges

“An attempt is being made to suppress and defame the Chhattisgarh government,” the CM stated while insisting that the Centre’s onslaught began when the BJP lost the Jharkhand elections in July 2020. They were silent for two and a half years, but have become active again as the elections are approaching, Baghel told reporters.

Apart from questioning the IT and ED’s investigation methods, the CM stated that both the agencies have not been able to prove their charges in coal scam, liquor scam so far. According to him, the liquor scam was supposed to be worth ₹2,168 crore as per the ED but till now they have been able to attach assets worth only ₹200 crore and that too of parental property acquired before 2018.

• Also read: ED digs up more benami asset of Chhattisgarh CM’s aide Saumya Chaurasia in coal levy scam

He also countered investigating agencies’ assertion that the scam lead to loss of excise revenue by stating that on the contrary it went up from ₹3,900 crore to 6,500 crore.

Similarly, he stated that the coal scam was billed as worth ₹500 crore after the agencies first filed FIR in Karnataka, then in Bhopal and now in Noida. But, so far ED has been able to confiscate assets worth only ₹150 crore, he pointed out.

Baghel said the problem of the BJP is that it is baffled how the government procured from farmers 107 lakh metric tonnes of paddy which earlier used to rot in the open. This is said in the context of paddy scam. “We saved all those losses. This is their worry,” he added.