RAIPUR: ED on Monday searched the premises of former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel as an extension of the probe against his son Chaitanya in an alleged liquor scam and money laundering case of Rs 2,161 crore.
ED teams arrived at 14 locations in Durg district, including Baghel’s house in Padumnagar, early morning. A cash-counting machine was taken into the house by ED officials during the search, officials said.
The agency issued a statement saying searches were carried out under Prevention of Money Laundering Act at premises related to Baghel, Chaitanya and close associate Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu Bansal. “ED has gathered that Chaitanya is also the recipient of proceeds of crime generated from the liquor scam, wherein the total proceeds of crime are around Rs 2,161 crore, siphoned off through various schemes,” ED said.
The agency said searches were carried out at Baghel’s Bhilai residence since Chaitanya stays with his father and he’s suspected to be linked with the alleged liquor scam that ED says caused “massive loss to state exchequer and filled pockets of beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate”.
ED, which has attached assets worth Rs 205 crore as part of its probe so far, said the scam was carried out between 2019 and 2022 during Baghel’s tenure as CM.
After ED officials left, Baghel stepped out of the house and said, “They found three things in my house — a pen drive containing conversations about multi-crore transactions between Manturam and Puneet Gupta (son-in-law of former CM Raman Singh), documents related to a shell company owned by Abhishek Singh (Raman Singh’s son), and Rs 33 lakh in cash from family farming, dairy business, women’s jewellery and cash in hand, for which an accounting record will be provided.” Baghel did not specify who is Manturam. ED officers were unable to provide an ECIR (enforcement case information report) number, Baghel added.
The searches sparked a row, with Congress members creating a din in assembly, and accusing BJP govt of using ED to settle personal scores.