IN A major follow-up to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam probe, the Enforcement Directorate’s Raipur Zonal Office (ED-RPZO) on Thursday widened its search and seizure operation against former Chhattisgarh Congress treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal and persons associated with him to seven premises across Raipur, Dhamtari and Durg, seizing unaccounted cash exceeding Rs 1 crore, knowledgeable sources privy to the operation told ‘The Hitavada’. According to sources closely associated with Thursday’s enforcement action, a team of more than 30 ED officials, escorted by over 50 armed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, simultaneously covered four residential and three office premises. Sources said the bulk of the cash was recovered from office premises. Investigators also seized what sources described as substantial incriminating documentary material and digital devices purportedly containing details of ill-gotten money and its financial trail. Sources tracking the multi-location operation said the premises searched included Agrawal’s residence on Sihawa Road in Dhamtari, where an ED team arrived early Thursday. Searches also extended to premises linked to Anoop Agrawal of GD Logistics in Raipur, Agrawal’s nephew Prateek Agrawal in Dhamtari, and premises associated with builder Sajal Jain and Vishwas Gupta in Durg, according to preliminary information emerging from the operation. Knowledgeable sources said the searches were expected to continue beyond midnight as ED teams prepared inventories of seized material and recorded statements of multiple individuals covered during the operation under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

 

The final seizure figure had not been officially released by Thursday evening, leaving the cash tally at more than Rs 1 crore subject to completion of the inventory. The operation comes nine days after ED-RPZO arrested Agrawal under Section 19 of PMLA in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam investigation. According to the agency’s case against him, nearly Rs 72 crore in alleged proceeds of crime has been attributed to Agrawal. ED claims cash was delivered to him at Rajiv Bhawan in Raipur and subsequently moved, on his instructions, towards Congress Bhawan in New Delhi, while Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore was allegedly retained and distributed every month according to his directions. Agrawal had earlier been taken into custody by the State Economic Offences Investigation Bureau and AntiCorruption Bureau (SEOIACB) in July in investigations concerning the coal levy, liquor and custom milling cases. ED had told the Special Court following Agrawal’s August 11 arrest that the alleged liquor syndicate generated Rs 2,883 crore in proceeds of crime between 2019 and 2023. Agrawal was remanded to seven days’ ED custody. The agency also alleged that he failed to appear in response to four summons issued under Section 50 of PMLA before his statement was eventually recorded. During the earlier State agency investigation, SEOIACB had questioned Agrawal over documentary and digital evidence, including entries in a diary allegedly seized from coal levy case accused Suryakant Tiwari. The agency had also examined allegations concerning money purportedly delivered by Anwar Dhebar and associates in the liquor investigation and by Roshan Chandrakar in the custom milling investigation. Those allegations remain subject to investigation and judicial scrutiny.

 

Thursday’s searches remained underway at the time of filing. Sources familiar with the operation said investigators were correlating the seized paper and digital trails with statements being recorded during the searches. Significantly, sources did not rule out the possibility of high-profile arrests following scrutiny of the evidence and money trail unearthed during the operation. No such arrest, however, had been officially confirmed by ED until the filing of this report.