ED arrests Chhattisgarh CM's Deputy Secretary Soumya Chaurasia in money laundering case

A top bureaucrat of Chhattisgarh has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering. The ED has arrested Saumya Chaurasia, deputy secretary of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. The Income Tax Department had said in June last year that it had busted an alleged hawala racket worth over Rs 100 crore after raids in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur. Under hawala transactions, cash transactions have taken place outside the formal banking system.

The chief minister had termed the central agency's raids as "political vendetta". He claimed that it was an attempt to "destabilise" his government. In February 2020, the Income Tax Department's raid on Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia, including his close aides, turned the case into a state versus centre. The Income Tax Department team raided Soumya Chaurasia's bungalow. At that time, raids were also conducted at the places of two businessmen in Jagdalpur. After the raids, the Chhattisgarh police seized 19 cars that were allegedly hired by Income Tax officials for the raids. The police said that all the vehicles were parked in the no-parking zone, so they recovered the fine as per the Motor Vehicles Act and released the vehicles. BJP leaders had raised the issue in the assembly and alleged that the police was trying to stop the Income Tax raids.