IAS officer among three arrested by ED in Chhattisgarh mining case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested Chhattisgarh-based IAS Sameer Vishnoi, Sunil Agarwal of Indramani Group and Laxmikant Tiwari, uncle of absconding accused Suryakant Tiwari in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case pertaining to disproportionate assets.

IAS Ranu Sahu IAS, was reportedly missing and she will have to appear before the ED, said sources.

Vishnoi was on Wednesday questioned by the ED officials regarding the alleged commission of Rs 25 per tonne coal unearthed from the mines.

The ED conducted raids at locations in Chhattisgarh for two consecutive days and recovered around Rs 4 crore.

The Income Tax had earlier written a letter to the Chhattisgarh government in which it was alleged that a few officials very close to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel were involved in getting commission/bribe from coal and other businessmen. However, no action was taken by the state government in this respect.

According to the information, IAS J.P. Maurya and Ranu Sahu’s premises were among those raided by the central anti-money laundering agency.

The ED team also searched the premises of three IPS officials.

Earlier, when the raids were being conducted, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had termed it as “political raids”.

(IANS)