A senior Chhattisgarh official was detained by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a coal extortion case. Soumya Chaurasia, who holds the position of Deputy Secretary under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, has been identified as the official.
Prior to the searches by the ED, the Income Tax Department raided homes connected to the arrested government official because she was on the radar of central agencies in a case involving unlawful mining. She was taken into custody after the ED called her in for interrogation.
Notably, the Income Tax Department’s FIR led the ED to open a money laundering investigation. According to sources, the ED is looking into every aspect of this plot, including the principal mastermind, the high officials’ roles in facilitating the fraud with impunity, and the recipients of the illicit proceeds of crime.
On Sunday, Chhattisgarh CM Baghel issued a number of cautions to the central investigation agencies and accused the officers of using “violence and intimidation” while performing their jobs. He claimed that reports of ED and IT officials using violence were getting to him and that this behaviour was intolerable.