IN A significant development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, in a supplementary chargesheet filed on January 1, 2024. The chargesheet is related to allegations of receiving bribes amounting to approximately Rs 508 crore from the promoters of the Mahadev App. As per the ED chargesheet, Mahadev App promoter and accused Subham Soni made startling revelations during the investigation. The chargesheet includes names of several other accused individuals, including Subham Soni, Anil Kumar Agrawal alias Atul Agrawal, Rohit Gulati, Bhim Singh Yadav, and Asim Das.

 

ED names former... (Contd from page 1) The supplementary chargesheet was filed before the special court for PMLA cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at Raipur, Chhattisgarh on January 1, 2024. According to the ED, Asim Das, in his statement, disclosed that Subham Soni, a prominent figure in Mahadev Online Book, instructed him to deliver a substantial amount of cash to Bhupesh Baghel. The chargesheet points out that Das was called to Dubai by Soni on October 25, 2023, and was provided with cash to be delivered to Baghel. A voice message recovered from Das’s phone further strengthens the claims, where Soni instructs him to deliver 8-10 crore rupees to Baghel upon returning to India. The supplementary chargesheet reveals that on November 2, 2023, the ED intercepted Asim Das and seized cash amounting to Rs 5.39 crore from his premises.

 

This cash was allegedly being moved by Mahadev App promoters to a select politician in Chhattisgarh, as per ED statements. Das admitted that he was tasked by Subham Soni to deliver the cash to Bhupesh Baghel. Subham Soni’s email correspondence and statements from other witnesses, including Chandrabhushan Verma, indicate that Bhim Singh Yadav acted as a conduit for Mahadev Online Book in the payment of “liaisoning money.”

 

FORMER Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday alleged the ED has mentioned his name in its chargesheet as part of a “political conspiracy” at the behest of its “political masters”. The Congress leader also alleged the federal agency has been fraudulently arresting people and pressuring them to give statements against him and his associates. The ED in its second prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed before a special court in Raipur on January 1 stated that alleged courier Asim Das, arrested in the Mahadev betting app case, who claimed he had been sent to “deliver” cash to Bhupesh Baghel, has retracted his denial of having made the charges.

 

“The way the ED has mentioned my name in its supplementary charge sheet is completely part of a political conspiracy. The ED, at the behest of its political masters, has been fraudulently arresting people and pressuring them to give statements against me and my associates. The allegations of money transactions made in these statements are baseless,” Baghel wrote on ‘X’. “Asim Das, from whom the money was recovered, had said in his hand-written statement from jail that he too has been deceived and implicated and that he never delivered money to any politician or people associated with them. Now the ED has claimed that he has withdrawn his statement.

 

Everyone knows that under which pressure all this has been happening,” he said. The ED has the complete recording of the day of the incident when money was allegedly recovered from Asim Das which means the entire incident was pre-planned and engineered by the federal agency, according to Baghel.