A special court in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur has issued notices to two Congress MLAs and seven others accused in a money laundering case related to the alleged coal levy scam. The court has asked the alleged accused to appear before it on October 25. The ED had last month filed the second supplementary charge sheet in the case in the court of Fourth Additional District and Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput. In this, 11 people including Congress MLAs Devendra Singh Yadav and Chandradev Prasad Rai and IAS officer Ranu Sahu have been nominated.
Special Public Prosecutor Saurabh Kumar Pandey said that the special court filed the second supplementary charge sheet on Saturday. The court has issued notices to nine of the 11 accused. Sahu and Nikhil Chandrakar had already been arrested in the case. Apart from MLAs Yadav and Rai, the nine accused also include Congress leaders RP Singh and Vinod Tiwari. Since sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act imposed in this case are cognizable and non-bailable, the remaining nine accused, who have not been arrested yet, are required to obtain anticipatory bail.
Special Public Prosecutor Saurabh Kumar Pandey said that if the Congress leader does not appear during the hearing, the court can issue bailable or non-bailable warrant against him. The ED investigation pertains to an alleged scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne for coal was being collected in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen. The ED, in its second supplementary charge sheet, has alleged that Sahu facilitated the collection of illegal levy amount by other accused.
The ED alleges that Sahu, who served as Collector of Korba district during the period of the scam, facilitated the collection of illegal levies from coal transporter and District Mineral Fund (DMF) contracts by Suryakant Tiwari and his associates and received huge kickbacks from them. of. The ED has claimed that Yadav, MLA from Bhilai Nagar, had allegedly received around Rs three crore from the proceeds of crime generated by the coal ‘cartel’ for the Khairagarh by-election (in April 2022) and other political and personal expenses.
According to the ED, Bilaigarh MLA Rai had allegedly received Rs 46 lakh for election financing, political expenses and personal gifts, while Congress leaders Tiwari and Singh received around Rs 1.87 crore and Rs 2.01 crore respectively for political and personal expenses. Were. The first chargesheet in the case was filed on December 9 last year, naming IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, businessman Sunil Aggarwal, Suryakant Tiwari and his relative Laxmikant Tiwari, all previously arrested by the ED, as accused. .