Raipur: A special court Chhattisgarh's Raipur district on Saturday sent to the Enforcement Directorate's custody businessman Suryakant Tiwari, a prime suspect in a money laundering case linked to the alleged extortion of money from mining transporters. Three other alleged accused, including an IAS officer, arrested in the case are already in judicial custody.
Tiwari, who was stated to be absconding, surrendered before the court of additional district and session judge Ajay Singh Rajput on Saturday, following which the ED approached the court for his custodial interrogation. "Tiwari surrendered before the court, but we argued that there is no provision of surrender under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act and prayed for his custody, which was allowed by the court, the ED's counsel Sharad Mishra said.
The ED had sent several notices to Tiwari following the raids, but he failed to appear, hence, the probe agency sought his custody for questioning, he said.
The court has granted the ED Tiwari's custody for 12 days, the lawyer said. The next hearing is scheduled on November 10, the day on which three other accused in the case IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, businessman Sunil Agrawal and Laxmikant Tiwari, uncle of Suryakant Tiwari, will also be produced in the court after the expiry of their judicial remand, he said.
Vishnoi, Agrawal and Laxmikant Tiwari were arrested by the ED on October 13, after the agency launched multi-city raids in the state on October 11.
The ED had in a statement claimed that a massive scam was taking place in coal transportation in Chhattisgarh, under which a cartel of politicians, officers and others was allegedly running a parallel system of extorting illegal levy, which is generating about Rs 2-3 crore daily.
The probe agency alleged that Vishnoi and his wife were found in possession of unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 47 lakh and 4 kg gold jewellery. The money laundering investigation was launched after the ED took cognisance of a complaint by the Income Tax department. The probe agency has claimed that the main kingpin of this scam is Suryakant Tiwari and his associates entered into a criminal conspiracy to run a parallel system of extorting illegal levy on coal and were doing illegal and unaccounted cash movement.
The agency had said that it has seized unaccounted cash of Rs 4.5 crore, gold jewellery, bullion and other valuables worth around Rs 2 crore during the raids. As per case details, Vishnoi, a Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer of the 2009 batch, was working as the CEO of the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society. Laxmikant Tiwari, a lawyer from Mahasamund district, is the uncle of coal businessman Suryakant Tiwari whose properties were also covered during searches.
The probe agency also carried out searches at Laxmikant's residence in Mahasamund town. Sunil Agrawal, the director of Indermani Group involved in coal trading, is said to be closely associated with Suryakant Tiwari. He has been in the coal business for over a decade and allegedly has links with senior politicians.The ED raids also covered premises of two other IAS officers Raigarh collector Ranu Sahu and her husband JP Maurya, the director of geology and mining department in the state. (PTI)
