Chhattisgarh coal levy extortion funds used for election expenses, bribe politicians: ED

New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Monday said a part of the Rs 540 crore "extortion" money generated from an alleged illegal coal levy scam in Chhattisgarh during the previous Congress government was used to fund election-related expenses and "bribe" politicians and bureaucrats.

The federal probe agency said in a statement that it has attached assets worth a combined Rs 2.66 crore of Soumya Chaurasia, a suspended state administrative service officer who was deputy secretary in the Chhattisgarh CMO, and another person as part of a money laundering investigation into these allegations.

A total of eight immovable properties, land parcels and residential flats, have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

These properties were "acquired" by the accused in the case-- Chaurasia and Nikhil Chandrakar-- in the names of their relatives from the proceeds of crime generated from the "illegal" collection of coal levy and other extortion activities, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

The combined value of the attached assets is Rs 2.66 crore, it said.

The case pertains to charges that a group of private individuals, in active connivance with senior politicians and bureaucrats of Chhattisgarh, formed a "racket" to "extort" money from coal transporters at the rate of Rs 25 per tonne during July 2020-June 2022.

The agency alleges that Rs 540 crore was "illegally" collected by the syndicate.

The Congress had rejected the charges and claimed political conspiracy in these charges made against its government.

"The extorted cash was used to bribe government officials and politicians, fund election-related expenses, and acquire movable and immovable assets," it alleged.

Chaurasia, known to be a powerful bureaucrat in the government of former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, and ten others were arrested by the ED in this case. She later obtained bail from the Supreme Court.

The agency has filed five chargesheets in this case till now naming 35 individuals and companies.

The money laundering case stems from a 2022 FIR of the Bengaluru Police, a chargesheet filed by the Income-Tax Department in 2023 and a complaint filed by the Chhattisgarh economic offences wing/anti-corruption bureau (EOW/ACB) in 2024. PTI NES DV DV