“No action executed with sense of revenge”: Sitharaman on ongoing raids on Cong leaders

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted new searches at almost a dozen places in Chhattishgarh on Monday in connection with mining and an alleged coal levy fraud. According to sources, the locations searched include the homes and offices of several Congress officials, including Ram Gopal Agarwal, Girish Devangan, RP Singh, Vinod Tiwari, and Sunny Agrawal. Last month, the ED raided various places in Chhattisgarh, including the home of an IAS officer, as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into the state’s alleged coal levy scandal.

The federal investigation agency initiated an investigation into this matter in October of last year, following a raid on another state IAS officer, Sameer Vishnoi, and some businesspeople.

Sameer Vishnoi, an IAS officer from the 2009 batch, and his wife were discovered to be in possession of Rs 47 lacs in undeclared cash and 4 kg of gold jewellery. The inquiry is into “a major scheme in which an unlawful fee of Rs 25 was extorted for every tonne of coal carried in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businesses, politicians, and middlemen,” according to the agency.

Vishnoi, coal trader and suspected “primary leader of the scheme” Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari, and another coal businessman Sunil Agrawal have all been detained in this case.

Following the attachment of their properties worth more than Rs 150 crore in December last year, the ED stated in a statement that Chaurasia, Vishnoi, and other coal traders allegedly related to them “used” their family to construct “benami” assets.

The agency claimed that in the natural resources-rich state, a “grand plot” was formed to perpetrate a coal levy “scam” in which Rs 540 crore was “extorted” during the last two years. The money laundering lawsuit originates from an Income Tax department complaint filed during taxman raids in June 2022.