Bilaspur: The bail plea of a suspended senior bureaucrat, Soumya Chaurasia, who was accused in a coal levy and money laundering case, will be transferred to another bench after Justice Sachin Singh Rajput refused to hear her petition. The bail plea was filed in the Chhattisgarh High Court. Chaurasia was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the coal extortion case in December 2022. She is currently lodged in the Raipur Central Jail. Chaurasia filed her bail petition in the High Court on Monday, but after the judge refused to hear the petition, it will now be placed on the bench of another judge.
Chaurasia's name had come up during the series of raids that were carried out by the ED on the official premises of IAS officers and political leaders in October last year. Many officers, including Chaurasia, were arrested in the raids in the coal scam under the money laundering case. Chaurasia, a 2008-batch officer of the state administrative service, was posted as the deputy secretary in Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s office. Before her arrest, the ED had summoned her several times and she had appeared before the agency for questioning.
Read more: Coal levy 'scam': ED attaches fresh benami assets of Chhattisgarh CM's deputy secy, coal trader
After arrest, Chaurasia's bail application was filed in the Raipur court. After the hearing, the Raipur court rejected the application following which, Soumya filed a bail petition in the High Court. The petition was supposed to be heard in the High Court. But, when it was placed in the bench of Justice Sachin Singh Rajput for hearing, the judge refused to hear it due to personal reasons.
