‘Conspiracy to manage headlines’
Raipur: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday raided the premises of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel as part of a money laundering investigation against his son in the alleged liquor scam case, official sources said.
The premises of Bhupesh Baghel’s son – Chaitanya Baghel – in Bhilai (Durg district), an alleged close associate of Chaitanya Baghel, Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu Bansal, and some others are also being searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
Chaitanya Baghel shares the Bhilai accommodation with his father and hence the premises are being covered. He (Chaitanya Baghel) is suspected to be the “recipient” of the proceeds of crime of the liquor scam, they said.
About 14-15 premises are being raided in the state, they said.
The Congress said the raids against the Baghels were a “conspiracy” to “manage headlines” on a day when Parliament’s budget session reconvened and the government faced questions from the opposition on multiple issues.
Soon after the searches, a number of Congress leaders and workers gathered outside Baghel’s house in Bhilai.
They staged a protest outside the house against the ED and claimed it to be a conspiracy by the Centre.
The ED earlier said the Chhattisgarh liquor ‘scam’ resulted in ‘massive loss’ to the state exchequer and filled the pockets of the beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate with more than Rs 2,100 crore of proceeds of crime.
The ED had arrested former minister and Congress leader Kawasi Lakhma in this case in January apart from Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer Arunpati Tripathi and some others as part of this investigation.
The alleged scam in the central Indian state, as per the ED, was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when Chhattisgarh was ruled by a Congress government led by CM Baghel.
Assets worth about Rs 205 crore of various accused have been attached by the agency as part of this investigation till now.
The Supreme Court in 2024 had quashed ED’s first ECIR (FIR) in this case that was based on an Income Tax Department complaint. The federal agency later filed a fresh case after it asked the Chhattisgarh EOW/ACB to file a fresh FIR against the accused on the basis of material shared by the anti-money laundering agency.
