In a money laundering case connected to the suspected coal levy scam in the state Chhattisgarh, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted a raid on three departments’ offices on Wednesday.
The ED sources reported that the officials searched the offices in Indira Bhawan in Nava Raipur including the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bhavan. The raid is still going on. It was reported that the ED searched the offices of the labour, irrigation and environment department in Nava Raipur.
The raid was conducted just after raiding the premises of eight congress leaders on Monday. Also all these were linked to the coal levy scam. Originally, the ED’s chargesheet stated that a cartel made up of prominent bureaucrats, businesspeople, politicians, and middlemen was trying to fleece a 25 per tonne unlawful fee for every tonne of coal transported in the state.
In court-submitted documents, the ED referred to it as a “mega scam” and claimed that the “genesis of the scam of generation of illegal money through transportation of coal was started once the Geology and Mining Department issued a notification on July 15, 2020, signed by the director of geology and mining department.”
According to a statement from the ED, a syndicate of politicians, officers, and others was allegedly operating a “parallel system of extorting unlawful levies” in Chhattisgarh that was allegedly producing approximately ₹2 to ₹3 crore each day.
In the course of the investigation, the ED detained the deputy secretary to the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, on December 2, 2022. They said that information found in her WhatsApp conversations with the drug kingpin Suryakant Tiwari was shared with him.
Although there are numerous political controversies surrounding this case, the truth should eventually surface. The raid went on into the night.
Support our journalism by subscribing to TaxscanAdFree. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates.
