Chhattisgarh: EOW files chargesheet against 7 govt servants, 2 others in alleged DMF scam

Raipur, May 27 (PTI) Chhattisgarh police's Economic Offences Wing on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against seven government servants and two others in the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) scam that allegedly took place during the previous Congress dispensation in the state, officials said.

The chargesheet, which runs into around 6,000 pages, was filed before a special court in capital Raipur, in which nine persons, including seven public servants, were named as accused, the anti-graft agency said in a statement.

Suspended IAS officer Ranu Sahu, who was then posted as the collector of Korba district; then deputy secretary at chief minister's office (CMO) Soumya Chaurasia; then assistant commissioner with tribal development department Maya Warrier; then deputy collector and nodal officer of DMF (Korba) Bharosa Ram Thakur and three then Janpad Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) Muneshwar Singh Raj, Virendra Rathore and Radheshyam Mirjha are named in the chargesheet.

Businessman Suryakant Tiwari and middleman Manoj Dwivedi are also named as accused, it said.

All these accused are currently lodged in Central Jail Raipur on judicial remand, it said.

In the year 2021-22 and 2022-23, the accused, through their sponsored proprietor/vendor, committed corruption and financial irregularities in the tendering under the DMF fund in Korba district by hatching a criminal conspiracy and gained undue advantage for themselves, the chargesheet said.

Under a well-planned conspiracy, the tender was allotted to the sponsored proprietor/vendor and financial loss was caused to the government by the accused (public servants) by receiving commission of about 40 per cent (about Rs 75 crore) of the total tender value, it said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also been probing the money laundering angle in the alleged DMF scam.

Notably, Ranu Sahu, Soumya Chaurasia and Suryakant Tiwari are also accused in alleged coal levy scam. The ED had arrested Sahu in 2023 and Chaurasia and Tiwari in 2022 in the alleged coal levy scam. The ED had arrested Warrier in the alleged DMF scam last year.

The investigation by ED suggested that alleged irregularities were committed in the DMF during Sahu's tenure as collector in Raigarh and Korba districts (during the previous Congress government in the state), and she allegedly received huge kickbacks from contractors who were allotted work under the DMF, officials said.

When Sahu was the collector in coal-rich areas, Warrier was then posted in a related department there and facilitated irregularities in the DMF, he said.

The ED had claimed that mining contractors linked to the DMF in Chhattisgarh paid "huge amounts of illegal gratification" to state officials and political executives in exchange for getting official work tenders.

The contractors "paid huge amounts of commission/illegal gratification to officials and political executives, which is to the tune of 25-40 per cent of the contract value", it alleged.

The DMF is a trust funded by miners that has been set up in all districts of the state with an aim to work for the benefit of those affected by mining-related projects and activities.

State's EOW had registered FIR in connection with alleged DMF scam in January last year based on the information provided by the ED.

In its report to the EOW, the ED had claimed large-scale financial irregularities in the allotment of tenders under the DMF in Korba district (during the previous Congress rule) and illegal benefits were given to the bidders by wrongly determining the tenders that caused financial loss to the state government, officials said. PTI TKP NP