RAIPUR: Deputy secretary in Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s office Soumya Chaurasia was remanded in the Enforcement Directorate custody for four days by the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Raipur on Friday. Earlier in the day, the ED arrested Chaurasia in the coal extortion case and produced her before the special court of additional sessions judge Ajay Singh Rajput.
Chaurasia’s name surfaced after a series of raids carried out by the ED in various districts of Chhattisgarh on October 11. It was followed by searches in the official premises of three IAS officers and a couple of leaders of the ruling Congress. “The ED sought 14-day remand, but the court allowed only four days.
Chaurasia was earlier summoned nine times and she appeared for interrogation before the agency. There is an attempt to malign her reputation,” said Faisal Rizvi, the counsel for Chaurasia told this paper. The federal agency had earlier arrested IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, alleged kingpin Suryakant Tiwari and two businessmen in a coal scam under the money laundering case. They are now in Raipur central jail under judicial remand.
The ED claimed to have centred on a cartel, involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, and politicians that entered into an alleged criminal conspiracy pertaining to a massive scam in which an illegal levy of Rs 25 per ton of coal was extorted. It was alleged that Tiwari, who acted as the main kingpin, operated a parallel system to extort the illegal levy. “Around Rs 2-3 crore was generated on a daily basis,” the ED had estimated.