ED arrests former Chhattisgarh deputy secretary in the Baghel government in liquor scam
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had arrested former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya in connection with the liquor scam case.
The Enforcement Directorate's Bengaluru zone attached Rs 4.94 crore’s worth of assets of the other accused in the money laundering case in August (File Photo) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested Saumya Chaurasia, a former deputy secretary in the previous Congress-run government in Chhattisgarh, in connection with the alleged liquor scam that took place between 2019 and 2022.
Confirming the development, ED counsel Saurabh Kumar Pandey told The Indian Express, “Saumya Chaurasia will be produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Raipur city on Wednesday, after which more details will be provided about her alleged involvement”.
Earlier, the ED had arrested former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya in connection with the case. According to investigators, a syndicate of senior state bureaucrats, politicians, and excise department officials is accused of running a “parallel” excise department, wherein liquor was sold to the public, but no money came to the state exchequer, causing the government a loss of over Rs 2,500 crore.
In December 2022, the ED arrested Chaurasia, a state administrative officer who worked as deputy secretary to former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, in an alleged Rs 540-crore coal scam case. She was granted bail by the Supreme Court in May this year in the case.
Months after the BJP came to power in Chhattisgarh, the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, in 2024, booked Chaurasia in three separate cases — the coal levy case, misappropriation of District Monetary Foundation (DMF) fund, and disproportionate assets case.
In October this year, the Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) filed a chargesheet against her in court for amassing Rs 46.96 crore, which were disproportionate to her known sources of income. The amount is 1,872 per cent higher than her known sources of income and is the highest value of disproportionate assets amassed by a government servant in the history of the agency in the state, said an officer. As per the charges, she had purchased properties in the name of five of her relatives, including her mother, husband, cousin, and sister’s father-in-law.
According to the chargesheet, Chaurasia has been found to have made benami investments in approximately 45 immovable properties in the names of her family members and other individuals. These are real estate investments in three districts – Durg, Raipur, and Korba, it added.
An officer said, “During her 17 years of service, Chaurasia and her family’s legal income was approximately Rs 2.52 crore. Thus, she earned 1,872.86 per cent more as illegal income during her entire service. The investigation has also revealed that the maximum investment of illegal money in properties was made by Chaurasia between 2019 and 2022.”
A 2008 batch state administrative service officer, Chaurasia, was first posted as deputy collector in Bilaspur district. “Earlier, she served as an accounts officer in 2005. In 2019, she was appointed deputy secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office,” said the officer.
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