Chhattisgarh coal levy case: ED arrests 4, including 2 mining officials

In October, the ED had arrested three persons – IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, Laxmikant Tiwari and Sunil Kumar Agarwal of Indramani Group. The agency last year had claimed that Raigadh Collector Ranu Sahu and kingpin of the alleged scam Suryakant Tiwari were missing.

The ED investigation, sources said, found that “officials and politicians in the state were involved in an illegal levy on coal transportation, generating Rs 2-3 crore per day”.

“The ED has arrested four persons, identified as Deepesh Taunk, a close confidant of Saumya, Sandeep Kumar Nayak, mining officer in Surajpur, Shiv Shankar Nag, mining officer in Korba, and Rajesh Chaudhary, a conman, who was duping people after claiming to work as middleman to settle cases,” said an ED spokesperson.

“Deepak was involved in money laundering and both the mining officers assisted the syndicate of Suryakant Tiwari. Investigation has established that close family members of Agarwal were making desperate efforts to secure his release soon after his arrest by ED on October 12 last year. At that time, Rajesh Chaudhary came in touch with the relatives of Agarwal,” the spokesperson said.

“During Chaudhary’s interrogation, it was found that he had created fake ID cards of ED officers and declared himself as an ED employee in various KYC documents submitted to banks. All the arrested men have been produced before the PMLA Special Court at Raipur which sent them to three days of ED custody,” the spokesperson said.

ED had earlier issued a provisional attachment order (PAO), attaching proceeds of crime worth Rs 152.5 crore, and has filed a complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, (PMLA), the spokesperson said.

The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation based on an FIR lodged by the Income Tax Department in the matter.