The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday carried out searches at 14 places, including the premises of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his son Chaitanya Baghel, to probe money laundering in the liquor scam that occurred in the previous Congress regime.
Chaitanya Baghel’s premises in Bhilai, in the Durg district, his alleged close associate Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu Bansal, and some others premises were also searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), sources said. Bhupesh and Chaitanya live in the same house in Bhilai which was covered in the search by the sleuths.
Chaitanya, said sources, is suspected to be a “recipient” of the proceeds of crime of the liquor scam.
Baghel claimed the raiding team found ₹32-33 lakh cash in his house in Bhilai where he lives with his wife, three daughters, a son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
“It is not a big thing as I have a big family and we do farming on 140 acres and have other sources of income. We will provide its details,” he said.
The former CM charged that the raids were aimed at discouraging him after he was made Congress’s in-charge for Punjab.
Reacting to the ED raids, the Congress said it’s a “conspiracy” to “manage headlines” on a day when the government finds itself on a mat in Parliament’s Budget session which reconvened on Monday, on multiple issues.
As a mark of solidarity, State Congress leaders and workers gathered outside Baghel’s house in Bhilai to protest against the continued misuse of agency by the Centre against opposition leaders.
The ED had earlier alleged that the liquor scam was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when Chhattisgarh was ruled by a Congress government led by Baghel.
More than ₹2,100 crore of proceeds of crime were generated through the Chhattisgarh liquor scam, the ED had alleged in the past.
The agency had arrested former minister and Congress leader Kawasi Lakhma in January apart from Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer Arunpati Tripathi and some others as part of this investigation.