Coal Scam: Special Court Raipur takes ED’s complaints into consideration

The Coal Cartel of Suryakant Tiwari and Ms. Saumya Chaurasia, which was extorting an illegal charge on the transportation of coal, iron pellets, and other items in the state of Chhattisgarh, was the subject of an Enforcement Directorate money laundering investigation.

Directorate of Enforcement has conducted many searches, apprehended nine accused people (all of whom are in judicial custody), and filed two prosecution charges before the Special Court (PMLA) against Suryakant Tiwari, Saumya Chaurasia, Sameer Vishnoi IAS, and others. In addition, the court has taken note of the ED’s concerns.

According to the investigation, this extortion operation yielded Rs.540 crore in illicit gains, which were utilised for political contributions, benami property creation, and official bribes. The ED has attached property worth more than Rs.220 crore in this case.

Last month, the Enforcement Directorate attached 90 immovable properties, luxurious vehicles, jewellery, and cash worth Rs 51.40 crore belonging to Ms Ranu Sahu IAS, Suryakant Tiwari, Devender Yadav, MLA, Chandradev Prasad Rai, MLA, R P Singh, Vinod Tiwari, and Ram Gopal Agarwal in the illegal Coal levy extortion scam in Chhattisgarh.

According to ED sources, authorities recently searched the offices of Indira Bhawan in Nava Raipur, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bhavan. In court documents, the ED referred to it as a “mega scam,” claiming that the “genesis of the scam of generation of illegal money through transportation of coal began once the Geology and Mining Department issued a notification on July 15, 2020, signed by the director of geology and mining department.”