C’garh CMO Deputy Secy Chaurasia suspended
| Date :21-Dec-2022 |
UNDATED
IN A major development linked with the alleged multi-crore illegal coal levy scam the Chhattisgarh Government, finally, suspended Saumya Chaurasia, Deputy Secretary to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, following her arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Prior to her arrest by the federal agency, Chaurasia, a 2008-batch State Administrative Service (SAS) officer -- touted as one of most powerful bureaucrats at the helm in Chhattisgarh administration -- had been charged under the offence of money-laundering as defined under Section 3 of PMLA, 2002, punishable under Section 4 of PMLA, 2002.
It is pertinent to note that Chaurasia is the second officer of Chhattisgarh Government to be placed under suspension in the aftermath of ED probe. Sameer Vishnoi, a 2009-batch IAS officer, was suspended after his arrest on October 13, following a major search and seizure operation on his premises.
Vishnoi and three persons including the scam’s kingpin Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle-cum-bookkeeper Laxmikant Tiwari and coal businessman Sunil Agrawal are lodged in Raipur Central Jail under Judicial Custody Remand (JCR) since November 2.
The suspension letter of Chaurasia is dated December 15 but it was kept under wraps for nearly four days, until it surfaced in public domain on December 19. The court of Ajay Singh Rajput, 4th Additional Sessions Judge (Special Judge, PMLA) had granted custody of Chaurasia to ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam on December 2.
The court then sent her to Raipur Central Jail under Judicial Custody Remand (JCR) for four days on December 15 and extended it till January 2, 2022.
On December 15, the State Government’s General Administration Department (GAD) placed Chaurasia under suspension. The official order cited that Chaurasia has been suspended by the State Government with immediate effect under Rules 9 (2) (a) of Chhattisgarh Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) 1966, Rules. The order also clarified that Chaurasia will be entitled for sustenance allowance as per the rules.
Meanwhile, the ED also provisionally attached movable and 91 immovable properties worth Rs 152.31 crore belonging to belonging to Suryakant Tiwari (65 properties), Saumya Chaurasia (21 properties), IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi (5 properties), Sunil Agarwal and others. These properties included cash, jewellery, flats, coal washeries and plots of land located in the various parts of Chhattisgarh. The ED has described the illegal coal levy scam as an “extortion syndicate” involving some IAS and state officials, businessmen and politicians.
Its investigation revealed that an amount of at least Rs 540 crore has been extorted in the last two years. The federal agency analysed thousands of hand written diary entries and also corroborated it with the trail of cash movement with bank accounts, seized WhatsApp chats and recording of the statements of around 100 individuals.
While unraveling the modus operandi of multi-crore scam, ED maintained that the influential members of the extortion cartel like Suryakant Tiwari, Saumya Chaurasia, Sameer Vishnoi etc used their relatives to create benami assets. Land deals were done at minimum cheque amount and large amounts of cash generated from the extortion collection was infused to buy the assets, the ED charges maintained. Most of the time, the benamidaars did not even have the minimum capital to do the land deals. Then small unsecured loans were taken from multiple people on payment of cash to create capital to do land deals, it said.
Further, after the IT raids on June 30, 2022, in panic to avoid attachment by IT/ED, large number of assets were sold to Sunil Agarwal as he was not covered in the IT searches. To prevent further alienation of the tainted assets, provisional attachment was necessitated, the ED charges maintained.