Raipur:A special court in Raipur has issued notices to nine people including two Congress MLAs in a money laundering case in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. The nine alleged accused have been asked to appear before the special court on October 25.
Apart from Congress MLAs Devendra Yadav and Chandradev Prasad Rai, notices were issued to two Congress leaders RP Singh and Vinod Tiwari. A total of 11 people were named in the second supplementary chargesheet that was filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the court of District and Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput in this case last month.
"Among the 11 persons named in the second chargesheet included IAS Ranu Sahu and Nikhil Chandrakar, who have already been arrested in this case. Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that have been imposed in this case are cognizable and non-bailable. The nine accused who have not been arrested yet will be required to obtain anticipatory bail. If these people do not appear during the hearing, the court can issue bailable or non-bailable warrants against them," Saurabh Pandey, special public prosecutor said.
Under the alleged Chhattisgarh coal levy scam, an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen. In its chargesheet, ED alleged of a nexus between Sahu, who served as Korba district collector and coal businessman Suryakant Tiwari in facilitating illegal levy amounts from coal transporters and District Mineral Fund (DMF) contracts.