ED searches Baghel, son’s premises in Chhattisgarh booze rip-off | India Information – The Instances of India

RAIPUR: ED on Monday searched the premises of former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel as an extension of the probe towards his son Chaitanya in an alleged liquor rip-off and cash laundering case of Rs 2,161 crore.
ED groups arrived at 14 places in Durg district, together with Baghel’s home in Padumnagar, early morning. A cash-counting machine was taken into the home by ED officers in the course of the search, officers mentioned.
The company issued an announcement saying searches have been carried out underneath Prevention of Cash Laundering Act at premises associated to Baghel, Chaitanya and shut affiliate Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu Bansal. “ED has gathered that Chaitanya can be the recipient of proceeds of crime generated from the liquor rip-off, whereby the entire proceeds of crime are round Rs 2,161 crore, siphoned off via varied schemes,” ED mentioned.
The company mentioned searches have been carried out at Baghel’s Bhilai residence since Chaitanya stays together with his father and he’s suspected to be linked with the alleged liquor rip-off that ED says precipitated “huge loss to state exchequer and stuffed pockets of beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate”.
ED, which has hooked up belongings value Rs 205 crore as a part of its probe to date, mentioned the rip-off was carried out between 2019 and 2022 throughout Baghel’s tenure as CM.
After ED officers left, Baghel stepped out of the home and mentioned, “They discovered three issues in my home — a pen drive containing conversations about multi-crore transactions between Manturam and Puneet Gupta (son-in-law of former CM Raman Singh), paperwork associated to a shell firm owned by Abhishek Singh (Raman Singh’s son), and Rs 33 lakh in money from household farming, dairy enterprise, girls’s jewelry and money in hand, for which an accounting report shall be supplied.” Baghel didn’t specify who’s Manturam. ED officers have been unable to supply an ECIR (enforcement case info report) quantity, Baghel added.
The searches sparked a row, with Congress members making a din in meeting, and accusing BJP govt of utilizing ED to settle private scores.