Meanwhile, according to sources, the ED in its remand application submitted to the PMLA court revealed that IAS officer Ranu Sahu has knowingly and willingly, actively worked for running the extortion racket without any hindrance. She has also received Rs. 5.52 crore as kickbacks out of the Proceeds of Crime (PoC) and infused these PoC in acquisition of the properties in the name of her family members, relatives and benamidars. Thus, Ranu Sahu was directly and knowingly involved in generation of the PoC and she is also a party to use, layering, and projection of the PoC as untainted property and also is in possession of the PoC, she has committed offence of Money u/s 3 of the PMLA and punishable u/s 4 of the PMLA, the application stated. “Owing to above findings and her role in the coal levy scam, properties mentioned above have been provisionally attached on May 8, 2023,” it reads. The ED investigation has revealed that Ranu Sahu and Suryakant Tiwari have close association that involves financial transactions. “Ranu Sahu IAS had received Rs. 5.52 crore, out of the PoC as kickbacks from the coal syndicate for acting as active member of the syndicate and parked the same with Suryakant Tiwari. These facts have been disclosed by Rajnikant Tiwari and Nikhil Chandrakar in their statements recorded u/s 50 of the PMLA,” the remand application mentioned.

 

The remand application also mentioned the statement of a certain Nikul Patel, recorded u/s 50 of PMLA, wherein he admitted before the agency that he was awarded two contracts for work under District Mineral Foundation (DMF) in Korba district. The ED in its plea to the PMLA court stated that Ranu Sahu was required to be confronted with voluminous incriminating material (including many digital devices containing huge data and documents), gathered during investigation which is significant for further tracing the money trail involved in this ECIR and the analysis of such documents requires substantial time. The ED also urged the court that they need to investigate Ranu Sahu, Suryakant Tiwari and other members of the state-wide syndicate, with respect to certain financial transactions carried out with other members of the syndicate.

 

Earlier, the ED in its two prosecution complaints filed in the court of 4th Additional District and Sessions Judge (Special Judge PMLA) Ajay Singh Rajput, had specifically mentioned that a “massive scam” to the tune of Rs 540 crore took place throughout the State during the past more than two years in coal transportation. Till date, 10 persons of the syndicate, including state administrative service officer Saumya Chaurasia, Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari, Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, another coal businessman Sunil Agrawal and Nikhil Chandrakar have been arrested and all of them are in Raipur Central Jail under Judicial Remand Custody.