5 min readRaipurJul 23, 2023 04:04 AM IST
First published on: Jul 23, 2023 at 04:04 AM IST
Enforcement Directorate officials Saturday arrested IAS officer Ranu Sahu, director in the Chhattisgarh Agriculture Department, in connection with the coal levy case, her lawyer said.
“She has been arrested in the 2022 coal levy case. Before this, she was summoned five to six times from October 2022 to January 2023 and she has cooperated with the ED. After January 2023, she was never summoned by the ED. The grounds for the arrest are imaginary. The case is completely politically motivated,” said the lawyer, Faizal Rizvi.
The ED’s lawyer, Saurabh Pandey, confirmed the arrest and said Sahu had been produced in a Raipur court. “She has been remanded in three-day ED custody,” he said.
While seeking custody of Sahu, the ED alleged before the court that not just Sahu but the entire state machinery has assisted in executing the conspiracy of coal levy extortion. The ED named three government officials, IAS Sameer Vishnoi, Saumya Chaurasia and Sahu, for “assisting” the “kingpin” of the syndicate, Suryakant Tiwari. The extortion money was used as a bribe to pay government employees and for election expenditure, it alleged.
ED alleged Sahu who was posted as collector in Korba from June 2021 to June 2022 and thereafter as collector Raigarh till February 2023 was in touch with Tiwari through the latter’s relative.
In October 2022, ED raided the collector’s office in Raigarh but she was on leave. The office was sealed and on her return from leave she said her phone was stolen. ED alleged the phone was switched off around the same time ED reached to raid her office.
ED told court that Sahu was knowingly and willingly involved and was untruthful during her questioning by them. The ED has provisionally attached Sahu’s property worth Rs 5.52 crore. Sahu, who was earlier posted as collector in coal-rich Korba and Raigarh districts, is alleged to have received kickbacks from other accused in the coal levy case. ED alleged that when confronted with documentary evidence against her she was unable to give satisfactory replies.
Sahu is the second IAS officer to be arrested in the coal levy case. Last year Sameer Vishnoi, an IAS officer of the 2009 batch, was arrested.
Sahu’s lawyer said the attached property was bought before 2019, while the proceeds of crime mentioned by the ED were from 2020 onwards.
“Sahu has told the court that she had cooperated with the ED and that they have arrested her suddenly after five months despite them having no new questions to ask. We have said there is no need for custodial remand,” Rizvi said.
“The chats that they are showing between two persons do not involve her. Also when they did not seize mobile phones, how did they get the WhatsApp chats? Did they take permission before accessing such WhatsApp chats?” he said, adding that he had raised the matter before the court.
ED also mentioned that her husband JP Maurya is also an IAS officer in Chhattisgarh and appointed as special secretary Geology and mining department since 2021 but did not allege anything against him. Maurya was not reachable for comment.
The alleged coal levy scam came to fore when the Income Tax department conducted raids at the premises of Suryakant Tiwari and his associates in 2022 and found handwritten diaries, loose papers and digital evidence related to a syndicate operated by Tiwari. The scam was extortion of money, about Rs 25 per tonne of coal, which is over and above the legal amount fixed against the coal delivery order (DOs) issued by South Eastern Coalfield Limited (SECL) from various entities who were lifting and transporting the coal throughout Chhattisgarh.
The ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on September 29 in 2022. Tiwari’s eight associates were in touch with officials from the collectorate office and mining officers in Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Raigarh and Surajpur districts. These aides extorted Rs 25 per tonne coal from the coal transporters after July 2020 when a notification was issued by Vishnoi, then director of Directorate of Mining and Geology, Chhattisgarh regarding change in rule of verification of Dos from transparent online mode of getting e-permits for transporting coal to offline mode at the instance of Tiwari making the system prone to massive corruption. After this notification, the mining officer had to manually verify the DOs. The mining officers did not issue the transit pass to transporters till they paid Rs 25 per tonne coal to Tiwari’s associates. Over Rs 540 crores were made in 16 months.
On Wednesday, the ED searched 15 premises across the state, including Sahu’s home in Raipur, in what agency sources said was a new case. The agency also raided the home of Congress treasurer Ram Gopal Agrawal.
The ED has also raided premises of bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen in connection with two scams, related to the coal levy and liquor sale.
On Wednesday, the ED searched 15 premises across the state, including Sahu’s home in Raipur, in what agency sources said was a new case. The agency also raided the home of Congress treasurer Ram Gopal Agrawal.
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