Chhattisgarh: Special court takes cognisance of ED charge sheets in ‘illegal’ coal levy case

A special court in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur on Monday took cognisance of the two charge sheets of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case alleging extortion of illegal levy on the movement of coal, iron pellets and other articles, the agency said.
“The probe will be conducted against the coal cartel of businessman Suryakant Tiwari and Saumya Chaurasia in Chattisgarh’s coal levy extortion scam,” the ED said.
The ED has conducted multiple searches, arrested 9 accused persons (all are in judicial custody) and has filed two prosecution complaints in the Special Court (PMLA) Raipur, against Suryakant Tiwari, Saumya Chaurasia, Sameer Vishnoi IAS, and others, an official statement said.
According to ED, after an investigation, it has established that proceeds of crime worth Rs 540 Crore were acquired in this extortion racket and were utilized for political expenditure, creation of benami assets, and bribing officials.
The ED had attached assets worth over Rs 220 crore, it said.
Further investigation is underway.
Earlier, on May 9, the ED provisionally attached 90 immovable properties, luxurious vehicles, jewellery and cash worth Rs 51.40 crore belonging to IAS officer Ranu Sahu, Suryakant Tiwari, MLA Devender Yadav, MLA Chandradev Prasad Rai, RP Singh, Vinod Tiwari and Ram Gopal Agarwal in the illegal coal levy extortion scam in Chhattisgarh.
The ED further mentioned that after an investigation direct evidence was established of the aforementioned persons with Suryakant Tiwari whom it considers as the main suspect in this case.