ED arrests woman IAS officer in Chhattisgarh ‘coal levy scam’ case

RAIPUR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested a high-profile IAS officer, Ranu Sahu, in connection with the probe into the alleged 'illegal coal levy scam' in Chhattisgarh.
She was produced before a special PMLA court, which remanded in the central agency's custody for three days for interrogation.
ED counsel Saurabh Pandey told reporters that the IAS officer was arrested after the agency's investigation into the 'coal levy scam' found the proceeds of crime worth Rs 5.5 crore in the form of immovable property.He didn't specify the property was in whose name.
Sahu, a 2010-batch officer, is the second IAS officer to be arrested by the ED in connection with the same case. In October last year, Sameer Vishnoi of the 2009 IAS batch, was arrested and has been in custody ever since. Saumya Chaurasia, a state administrative service officer, and businessmen Surya Kant Tiwari, Sunil Agrawal, Laxmi Kant Tiwari were also arrested under PMLA and all of them are in judicial custody.
The ED had earlier said that the scam involved a cartel of bureaucrats, businessmen, middlemen and politicians, which was allegedly extorting an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne of coal transported in the state. The agency estimates that the scam could be worth over Rs 800 crore.
Sahu's arrest comes a day after ED officers searched her residences, along with those of state Congress treasurer Ram Gopal Agrawal, Korba municipal commissioner Prabhakar Pandey and a couple of businessmen.
Centre tried to trade with 71 Cong MLAs but failed: CM
Sahu, whose husband is also an IAS officer, was the collector of Raigarh and Korba districts -- the hub of coal and mining activities -- when she came under the ED scanner. She was managing director of the Mandi board and director of the agriculture department at the time of her arrest.
The central agency had earlier attached her properties worth crores. A couple of other IAS, IPS and other state government officials are also under the ED scanner in connection with some cases being probed by the agency in the state.
Sahu's counsel Faizal Rizvi said that she was arrested in the coal levy-related case and that she was summoned by ED several times between October 2022 and January 2023. "Sahu had fully cooperated during all the summons and there were no further queries or investigation after January. The ground of arrest that ED has presented in court is a work of fiction and baseless. It shows no direct involvement of Ranu Sahu in the case. Even the properties attached belong to her parents and were acquired before 2019 while the central agency, in its proceeds of crime,. has mentioned that they were bought in 2020," he said.
Seeking bail for her, the counsel argued in court that she has suddenly been arrested after 5-6 months of silence despite cooperating with the investigation.
"The move appears to be politically motivated. The central agency is doing this to please 'someone'," Rizvi said, adding that ED has presented some WhatsApp chats although Sahu's mobile phones were never seized. "It's a surprise how ED could access chats without seizing the phone.
Reacting to the ED and I-T searches of the past couple of days, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday said that Chhattisgarh has 71 Congress MLAs, which the Centre "tried to trade with but failed". "From what I understand, the central government's close friends are very much interested in mining sites in Chhattisgarh, be it coal or iron ore. And the Congress government is becoming a hurdle in their path, that's why they are doing all this. We have been taking decisions from time to time, keeping in mind the conservation and protection of forests, mining and natural resources of the state," CM said.
The ED was also probing an alleged Rs 2,000 crore 'liquor scam' that led to the arrest of a couple of businessmen under PMLA. However, the Supreme Court last week stayed the probe to adjudicate whether the ED can proceed in a case when there is no predicate offence or when the FIR in a predicate offence has been quashed. The SC asked ED to keep its "hands off" the accused.