Raipur, Oct 5 The Chhattisgarh EOW/ACB on Monday filed a sixth supplementary charge sheet in a special court in the alleged coal levy scam, naming 12 people, including Congress MLA Devendra Singh Yadav, former state Congress treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal, and IAS officer Jai Prakash Maurya.
According to investigative agencies, an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was allegedly collected from coal transporters by a syndicate comprising bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians, and middlemen during the previous Congress government.
The charge sheet alleged that 32 entries made between October 2020 and June 2022 under the names "Bhawan", "BHAWAN" and "C PARTY" recorded a total of Rs 104.20 crore.
The other accused named in the chargesheet are former Congress MLA Chandradev Prasad Rai, party leaders Rampratap Singh and Vinod Tiwari, businessman Sunil Kumar Agrawal, Piyush Kumar Sahu, Joginder Singh, Anurag Chourasia, Dipesh Tank and Rahul Mishra.
"A charge sheet of around 10,000 pages was filed before a special court. Twelve people have been named as accused. Most of them are already accused in the ED's coal scam case," said defence counsel Faisal Rizvi.
Rizvi claimed the allegations against his clients are false and would be defended in court.
The Chhattisgarh Economic Offence Wing/Anti-Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB)
The Economic Offence Wing/Anti-Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB) registered an FIR in January 2024 based on a complaint by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the money laundering aspect of the alleged scam.
It is alleged that a syndicate, involving private individuals such as Suryakant Tiwari and government functionaries including Saumya Chaurasia, who was posted as deputy secretary in the CMO during the previous Bhupesh Baghel government, and IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, brought deliberate changes in the mineral transportation system with the backing of certain political executives.
The charge sheet said handwritten diaries seized by the Income Tax Department indicated that around Rs 540 crore was collected as coal levy between July 2020 and June 2022.
The EOW/ACB had earlier filed a chargesheet and five supplementary charge sheets against 22 accused, including IAS officers Vishnoi, Ranu Sahu, and Saumya Chaurasia, who was posted as deputy secretary in the CMO when the Baghel government was in power.
In the latest chargesheet, the agency alleged that Suryakant Tiwari operated the entire system for collection, accounting, transportation, distribution and utilisation of the coal levy proceeds.
He allegedly used his political and administrative contacts to get changes made in the procedure for granting permission for coal transportation and to coordinate with the then political leadership and the Chief Minister's Office for issuing directions to field officials, it stated.
The EOW/ACB claimed that Rs 25 per tonne was demanded from coal transporters and the process for approval of delivery orders was taken forward after payment.
Transporters allegedly told investigators that those refusing to pay faced stoppage of permissions, vehicles and other business-related hurdles.
The money collected from districts was allegedly brought to designated locations in Raipur, including Maharaja Apartment and an office in Anupam Nagar, where it was counted and distributed.
Separate code words were allegedly used for receiving, accounting for and distributing the money, while handwritten diaries were maintained to record receipts, expenditure and balances, it claimed.
The state agency alleged that Ramgopal Agrawal, who was the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee treasurer during the relevant period and chairman of the Chhattisgarh Civil Supplies Corporation from July 2020 to December 2023, knew the money was generated through the illegal coal levy but received it for the party.
Agrawal allegedly received Rs 104.20 crore recorded under "Bhawan/C PARTY" through accused Devendra Dadsena for the party and thereby obtained undue benefit, it said.
The chargesheet said Agrawal is also an accused in allege scam cases related to liquor and paddy custom milling, in which he has been accused of collecting money allegedly obtained through illegal recoveries in separate cases for the party and delivering it to the Congress Bhawan, the party office.
In the case of Devendra Singh Yadav, the charge sheet alleged that 11 diary entries between March 28 and April 10, 2022, relating to him and a person identified as Nawaz, recorded Rs 3 crore.
The charge sheet alleged that Yadav received part of the money illegally collected from coal transporters by Tiwari and his associates for work related to the Khairagarh bypoll (held in 2022) as well as for his personal use.
The investigation showed that Jai Prakash Maurya, a 2010-batch IAS officer, was posted as director of the Directorate of Geology and Mining from June 2021 to December 2022 and dealt with matters relating to mineral leases, auctions, transportation and industrial applications.
Maurya is currently posted as Managing Director of Chhattisgarh Matikala Board.
The agency alleged that Maurya had known Tiwari since around 2010 and that their contact grew after Maurya was posted in Raipur.
The investigation found that Maurya received Rs 1 crore in cash from Tiwari without consideration while serving as a public servant, despite allegedly knowing that Tiwari was associated with the coal syndicate and had interests in matters handled by the Mineral Department, the charge sheet said.
Four diary entries linked to former MLA Chandradev Prasad Rai allegedly recorded Rs 49.50 lakh. Rai had told the ED that he had received cash from Tiwari and used it for accommodation, food, travel and other election-related expenses of workers during elections in Uttar Pradesh, it said.
The agency alleged that Rampratap Singh, then a Congress spokesperson, received cash from Tiwari for media management work.
Twenty-five entries under the names "RP Singh" and "RP" were allegedly found in seized diaries between February 5, 2021 and June 3, 2022, recording Rs 2.92 crore, it said.
Reacting to the charge sheet, Devendra Singh Yadav told PTI videos that the BJP government has "completely failed" in Chhattisgarh and alleged that "wrongful action" could not save it.
He expressed confidence that he would get justice and questioned the long-drawn investigation, saying he was neither afraid of going to jail nor of the BJP.
