Ex-Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel's son held in liquor scam case; ED cites 'active involvement'

Raipur, Jul 18 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has claimed Chaitanya Baghel, son of senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, received Rs 16.70 crore from an alleged liquor scam and played a key role in handling more than Rs 1000 crore that constituted the proceeds of crime.

The ED Friday arrested Chaitanya Baghel during the day in an alleged liquor scam-linked money laundering case, official sources said.

In its remand application filed in a special court here, the ED said its probe has revealed he was in possession of proceeds of crime and was also actively involved in its acquisition, possession, concealment, transfer, use and projecting the same as untainted.

The ED investigation revealed that Rs 5 crore was received by two firms of Chaitanya from M/s Saheli Jewellers, and further Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu has confirmed that these funds were transferred against "cash originating out of liquor scam", the remand application said.

"Further, Chaitanya has not paid any interest against this payment and out of Rs 5 crore, Rs 4.5 crore is still pending in the books for repayment. Thus, it is evident that the payment made by M/s Baghel Developers owned by Chaitanya is against the payment of an equivalent amount in cash only," the ED remand application added.

During the investigation, it was revealed that a large part of proceeds of crime (POC) generated from liquor scam was being handed over to Bansal, the ED said.

Bansal, in his statement under section 50 of PMLA, admitted he had received funds worth Rs 136 crore in a short span of time (three months) as discussed in the chats held between Anwar Dhebar and Nitesh Purohit (recovered from the phone of Anwar Dhebar, who was an agent for the syndicate and was managing collection on ground and its subsequent delivery to key persons), it said.

Furthermore, he (Bansal) had admitted in his statements that he handled more than Rs 1000 crore cash originating out of liquor scam in association with Chaitanya, which are proceeds of crime, the remand application said.

Bansal had collected the amount from Anwar Dhebar (liquor businessman) via Dipen Chawda and, thereafter, he had delivered the said funds to Ram Gopal Agarwal (Congress leader) in coordination with Chaitanya. it said.

Also, he delivered around Rs 80-100 crore cash (out of the above said funds received from Dipen Chawda) to KK Srivastava on Chaitanya's instructions, the ED remand application said.

The investigation also revealed use of cash (proceeds of crime) in the construction of 'Vitthal Green project' of M/s Baghel Developers. The ED conducted a search on the premises of the accountant of firms linked to Chaitanya and records had been seized.

A witness related to the project was also examined, and he revealed that the total cost of the project was under-invoiced in the books.

He informed that the total actual cost would be around Rs 13 to 15 crore, whereas in terms of books, only Rs 7.14 crore has been shown as the cost, the remand application said.

"Even in terms of the tally data, payments of only Rs 2.62 crores can be seen paid to M/s Shivam Construction by M/s Baghel Developers. Furthermore, the analysis of seized digital devices establishes that the construction company has been paid at least Rs 4.20 crore in cash for the works carried out by it at the development site of M/s Baghel Developers," it said.

This figure is likely to increase as the total payment is only Rs 2.62 crore whereas the total project cost is around Rs 13-15 crore, the ED's remand application added.

"Chaitanya concealed the true origin of the proceeds of crime by assimilating it in his project, so as to show the same as untainted. There are other payments as well where Chaitanya have been a party and he is the only person in knowledge of the end utilization of this money," it said.

Chaitanya was granted an opportunity to reveal all these details, but he remained non-cooperative and not divulging the truth, it said.

Chaitanya has committed the offence of money-laundering as defined u/s 3 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 and, thereby, guilty of offence of money laundering u/s 4 of the Act, it added.

The alleged liquor scam, according to the ED, was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when Chhattisgarh was governed by the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government. Assets worth about Rs 205 crore of various accused have been attached by the ED as part of this investigation so far, according to the agency.

Chaitanya was produced in the court of Special Judge (Prevention of Money Laundering Act-PMLA), which granted his custodial remand to the ED till July 22 with the ED seeking his custody for five days, the Central agency's counsel Saurabh Kumar Pande told reporters. PTI TKP BNM