The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed separate petitions filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Chhattisgarh government challenging the bail granted to Chaitanya Baghel, son of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, in cases linked to the alleged liquor scam.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohan upheld the bail orders but expunged the adverse observations made by the Chhattisgarh High Court against the state police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) during the bail proceedings.
The ED and the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)/EOW had separately approached the apex court after the High Court granted Baghel bail in both the money laundering and corruption cases.
Appearing for the state, counsel argued that Chaitanya Baghel was among the principal accused and an alleged mastermind in the high-profile case. His defence, however, contended that the High Court had delivered a well-reasoned order, noting that the investigation had been under way for nearly two years.
On 2 January, the Chhattisgarh High Court granted Baghel bail in both cases. Justice Arvind Kumar Verma allowed his applications in the ED case and the parallel ACB/EOW investigation.
In the ED matter, the High Court observed that Baghel’s alleged role was "significantly lesser" than that of several senior accused who had already secured bail. It noted that the alleged kingpins and principal beneficiaries, Anwar Dhebar, Anil Tuteja, Arvind Singh, Arunpati Tripathi and Trilok Singh Dhillon, had all been granted bail by the Supreme Court, and held that denying Baghel the same relief would be inconsistent with the principle of parity.
The High Court also observed that the investigation was largely documentary in nature and that Baghel had already spent a considerable period in custody. It added that the evidentiary value of the material collected by the ED, including statements recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), as well as financial and digital records, would be assessed during trial rather than at the bail stage.
In a separate order granting bail in the ACB/EOW case, the High Court criticised the investigating officer for failing to arrest accused Lakshmi Narayan Bansal despite a permanent, open-ended warrant issued by the special court, describing it as a "grave violation of law". Those observations have now been expunged by the Supreme Court.
The ED arrested Chaitanya Baghel on 18 July last year as part of its money laundering investigation into the alleged liquor scam. While he was in judicial custody, the ACB/EOW formally arrested him on 24 September in connection with its corruption probe.
(With inputs from PTI)