A special court in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur on Wednesday has ordered the issuance of fresh notices against around a dozen accused being probed in the alleged coal levy money laundering case in Chhattisgarh.
A PMLA court has fixed December 6 as the next date of hearing in the case.
The ED’s lawyer Saurabh Pandey said none of the accused, except Rajesh Choudhary, who is on bail, appeared before the court today.
Notices of some of the accused have been returned unserved while the service report of serving the court summons against some others is awaited, he stated that the court has ordered the issuance of fresh notices to the rest of the accused.
Sources stated that fresh notices have been issued by the court against around a dozen accused.
The federal agency has filed 2 charge sheets in this case till now under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
9 people, including the Chhattisgarh government’s bureaucrat Saumya Chaurasia, prime accused Suryakant Tiwari, his uncle Laxmikant Tiwari and Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, were arrested by the ED in the case.
Earlier, the agency claimed that its investigation “has established that proceeds of crime worth Rs 540 crore were acquired in this extortion racket and was utilised for political expenditure, creation of benami assets and bribing officials.”
ED attached assets worth more than Rs 220 crore till now.
The agency stated that the investigation relates to allegations of “a massive scam in which an illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen.”
