Chhattisgarh coal mining scam: ED attaches assets worth Rs 152 crore of IAS officers

Flats, jewellery, cash, coal washeries and plots belonging to arrested Chhattisgarh government bureaucrats like Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's Deputy Secretary Saumya Chaurasia, IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and others have been attached in the alleged coal levy scam money laundering case, the ED said Saturday.

The federal probe agency issued a provisional order for attachment of some movable and 91 immovable properties on Friday under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The assets are worth a total Rs 152.31 crore, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

The frozen assets include 65 properties belonging to coal trader and "main kingpin" in the case Suryakant Tiwari, 21 properties of Chaurasia, a powerful bureaucrat of the state administrative service posted in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), and five assets of 2009-batch IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi apart from that of another coal businessman of Chhattisgarh, Sunil Agarwal and some others.

"The properties include cash, jewellery, flats, coal washeries and plots of land located in Chhattisgarh," the ED said.

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All the four, apart from another businessman Laxmikant Tiwari (uncle of Suryakant Tiwari), have been arrested by the ED in the case.

The money laundering case stems from an Income Tax department complaint.

The ED investigation relates to "a massive scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen", the agency has said.