RAIPUR: The Special PMLA Court in Raipur on Saturday witnessed dramatic scenes after Suryakant Tiwari, considered the ‘main kingpin’ in the Chhattisgarh coal scam whom the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was chasing in a money laundering case, surrendered.
Tiwari, 50, surrendered before the court of Additional District And Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput. The ED had earlier cited him as the main kingpin before the court in the coal transportation scam.
Tiwari was remanded to ED’s custody for 12 days after the central agency in its plea before the court stated the need for further interrogation and gathering evidence in connection with the coal scam and money laundering case.
Tiwari was absconding since October 11, following the raids by the ED in different districts of Chhattisgarh. The searches were then conducted at the official premises of three IAS officers, the deputy secretary to the chief minister, some businessmen and a few leaders of the ruling Congress.
Based on the initial probe into the money laundering case, the ED arrested IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and two businessmen, Laxmikant Tiwari and Sunil Agrawal. The trio was in ED’s custody for 15 days, after which the Raipur court sent them to judicial remand till November 10.
Tiwari, who operates a robust business mainly in coal, managed to swear allegiance to whichever regime came to power, right from the first Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi to the BJP that ruled for 15 years and now the Congress.
The ED claimed to have traced a cartel involving bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians that entered into an alleged conspiracy pertaining to a scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 per ton of coal was extorted and transported in the state. It was allegedly that Tiwari operated a parallel system to extort illegal levy on coal.
“Around Rs 2-3 crore was generated on a daily basis,” an ED official said. The agency initiated the probe based on the FIR lodged earlier by the Income Tax department against the conspiracy.