Raipur (Chhattisgarh). [India]Feb 20 (ANI): Youth Congress and NSUI workers on Monday demonstrated in front of the Enforcement Directorate office in Raipur against the agency’s raids on the premises of several Congress leaders in the state. Coal levy money laundering probe
Amid heavy deployment of police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, members of the Youth Congress and NSUI protested outside the ED’s office in the backdrop of raids on Congress leaders’ residences.
Describing the ED raid as unfortunate and politically motivated, NSUI’s Raipur unit president Shantanu Jha alleged that the BJP is worried about the growing popularity and progress of the Congress in the state and because of this nervousness it is resorting to such acts.
ED has raided the addresses of Congress leaders and MLAs. Maybe the agency has lost its way, they have raided the addresses of Adani and Ambani.
Security personnel use mild force as hundreds of agitating workers make a bid to climb over the barricades put up at the premises in which the ED’s office is located.
Somehow the security personnel overpowered the agitators who were raising slogans against the central government.
Jha further said that party workers reached the gherao office of the central agency to register their protest against the ED action.
The raids by the federal agency came ahead of a three-day plenary session of the Congress from February 24 in Raipur.
Sources said the places which were searched on Monday included the residential and office addresses of Congress leaders Ram Gopal Agarwal, Girish Dewangan, RP Singh, Vinod Tiwari and Sunny Agarwal.
Last month, the ED had raided several places including an IAS officer in Chhattisgarh and other places in connection with the ongoing money laundering probe into the alleged scam.
The federal probe agency had started the probe in October last year following raids on another IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and some businessmen from the state.
2009 batch IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and his wife were found with unaccounted cash worth Rs 47 lakh and 4 kg gold jewellery.
“The probe pertains to a huge scam in which illegal extortion of Rs 25 for every tonne of coal transported to Chhattisgarh was being done by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen,” the agency alleged.
The ED had earlier claimed that Chaurasia, Vishnoi and some coal traders allegedly “used” their relatives linked to them to create “benami” assets after their assets worth over Rs 150 crore were attached in December last year. was done.
The agency further alleged that a “grand conspiracy” was hatched in the resource-rich state to execute the coal levy ‘scam’ under which Rs 540 crore was “extorted” in the last two years.
The probe “pertains to a huge scam in which illegal extortion of Rs 25 for every tonne of coal transported to Chhattisgarh was being done by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, traders, politicians and middlemen”, the agency alleged.
So far, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s deputy secretary Soumya Chaurasia, coal businessman Vishnoi and the alleged “mastermind of the scam” Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari and another coal businessman Sunil Agarwal have been arrested in this case.
The money laundering case stems from a complaint by the Income Tax department registered in June 2022 after raids by tax officials. (ANI)
This report has been auto generated from ANI News Service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.