Chhattisgarh suspended bureaucrat's judicial remand extended

Chaurasia's lawyer Maninder Singh said, "The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the court they did not have to interrogate Chaurasia further. She should be sent on judicial remand till the time of their investigation. As a result, ED requested 14 days of judicial remand in the court on which the court granted five days judicial remand."

Raipur: A special court of Ajay Singh Rajput on Wednesday sent Soumya Chaurasia, Deputy Secretary of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, to judicial remand of five days in connection with an alleged money laundering case. The next hearing into the matter has been scheduled for December 19.

Chaurasia's lawyer Maninder Singh said, "The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the court they did not have to interrogate Chaurasia further. She should be sent on judicial remand till the time of their investigation. As a result, ED requested 14 days of judicial remand in the court on which the court granted five days judicial remand."

"The ED has not presented the charge sheet before the court till now. I think nothing has come out in the 12 days that the ED interrogated Chaurasia. Nonetheless, more things will be known when the ED will present the charge sheet before the court. If the charge sheet is not presented then Chaurasia will come out," Singh added.

ED's lawyer Saurabh Kumar while talking to the media said, "After Chaurasia's arrest, we had taken ED remand for 12 days, which has ended. Now we requested the Honorable Court to be given in judicial custody. As our investigation is underway. After hearing the arguments, the Hon'ble Court has accepted and extended Chaurasia's judicial custody till January 2. The investigation is supposed to end soon and then we will present our case before the court."

Earlier on October 11, the Enforcement Directorate conducted simultaneous raids in several districts of the state. Soumya Chaurasia was suspended followed by the raids. Suspended IAS Sameer Bishnoi, businessmen Suryakant Tiwari, Laxmikant Tiwari and Sunil Aggarwal were arrested under the suspicion of their involvement.

The court sent these accused to jail on judicial remand on December 10 and said that the case will be continued through video conferencing from the jail itself. The Income Tax Department had then said that "after raids in Chhattisgarh, an alleged hawala racket of more than Rs 100 crore is being operated." This transaction has happened outside the formal banking system". Chaurasia's bases were raided in the year 2020 as well.

The ED arrested Sameer Bishnoi, an IAS officer from the state, and two others after raids in October. The money laundering case was investigated by the ED after taking cognisance of a complaint by the Income Tax Department. According to the investigating agencies, the illegal extortion of Rs 25 per tonne from each tonne of coal transported to Chhattisgarh by a cartel of senior bureaucrats had come to the light. The involvement of businessmen, politicians and middlemen was also revealed.