New Delhi: In its prosecution complaint filed Monday in the Chhattisgarh excise policy case against Chaitanya Baghel, businessman and son of former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) made a first direct allegation against the former CM regarding his role in the alleged liquor syndicate being run during his tenure from 2018 to 2023.
Quoting statements from Laxminarayan Bansal alias Pappu Bansal, a friend of Baghel’s family, the ED says he revealed the former CM once told him that Anwar Dhebar, alleged syndicate kingpin, would send him “saamaan, a code word for cash” to be delivered to Ram Gopal Agrawal, treasurer of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
The ED complaint or chargesheet, seen by ThePrint, identifies Anwar, brother of former Raipur mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, as the leader of the alleged liquor syndicate. Chaitanya stands accused of using his real estate projects and contacts to launder the proceeds generated from the syndicate.
In its complaint, the agency has claimed that Bansal’s statement about delivery of cash to the tune of Rs 960 crore at different times to the Congress office has also been corroborated by the statement of an assistant to the treasurer posted at the party office, who received the cash haul.
Additionally, the agency has made allegations against former deputy secretary in the Baghel CMO, Saumya Chaurasia, regarding her role in handling the flow of money generated from the syndicate. Chaurasia had been arrested earlier in a coal levy case and is currently out on bail.
“Former CM Baghel’s role has been referred to in the latest prosecution complaint only after the emergence of new facts during investigation since the last prosecution complaint was filed,” special public prosecutor Saurabh Pandey told ThePrint.
The ED’s probe stems from an FIR filed by Chhattisgarh’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in January 2024 against 70 individuals and entities, including then excise minister Kawasi Lakhma and top bureaucrats of the time. The FIR was based on an investigation following a complaint by the income tax department that alleged massive irregularities in the state liquor policy.
The ED had filed its first prosecution complaint in the matter in June last year, and a fourth supplementary complaint or chargesheet was filed against Chaitanya Baghel Monday. Chaitanya is currently in judicial custody after being arrested in July.
Speaking to ThePrint, Chaitanya’s lawyer Faisal Rizvi countered the ED’s allegations, saying the entire case against Chaitanya and also the specific accusation against the senior Baghel were based on the statement of Pappu Bansal, who faced threat of arrest by the Chhattisgarh EOW and ED.
“The Chhattisgarh EOW gets a production warrant issued against Pappu Bansal in May, and weeks later, he appeared before the state agency as well as the central agency and recorded statements implicating Chaitanya Baghel. This is a clear case of Pappu Bansal making statements to save himself from arrest,” he said.
“Pappu Bansal was under the apprehension that he would be implicated in some manner for his proximity to the former CM, and now his statements are being used to frame the former CM and his son,” Rizvi added.
While the former CM has not reacted to the latest ED chargesheet, he had termed the entire case a “conspiracy by Modi-Shah”, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at the time of his son’s arrest in July.
‘Trail of chats and confessions’
The ED’s prosecution complaint filed before a Raipur court has extracts of chats between Chaurasia and Anil Tuteja, a retired IAS officer alleged to be part of the syndicate, in which the former purportedly passes on instructions for Dhebar not to share accounting information with Pappu Bansal. She was allegedly passing on the instructions after Chaitanya informed her about Bansal inquiring about sales and accounts of the liquor syndicate.
From the extracted chat, the agency has concluded that since Chaitanya himself informed Chaurasia about Bansal’s inquiry, he was aware of the liquor syndicate and was driving the flow of information and instructions between syndicate members.
The ED has also relied upon a document recovered from a mobile phone seized during raids by the tax department at the premises of Dhebar and other syndicate members in 2020, that purportedly gives details of money generated through sales of both country liquor and foreign liquor across Chhattisgarh in September 2019.
In the document, allegedly prepared on 3 October, 2019, an entry has been made with reference to “Pappuji” and Rs 36 crore written against the name. The agency has claimed that the document establishes payment of Rs 36 crore to Pappu Bansal from illegally-generated funds in September 2019.
The agency also claims to have extracts of a conversation establishing movement of Rs 136 crore between September and December 2019 that year. However, those haven’t been reproduced in the complaint “for the sake of brevity”.
The ED has also attached extracts of chats between Anwar Dhebar and his associate, Nitesh Rajput, got from mobile phones seized by the tax department during raids, showing a conversation about the delivery of a huge amount of cash to Pappu Bansal.
The agency had summoned Bansal for questioning following these revelations, and he recorded his statement on three consecutive occasions between 6 June and 8 June this year. In the statements recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, Bansal allegedly admitted that he was a frequent visitor to the Baghel residence.
“During one such visit, Shri Bhupesh Baghel categorically told him that Anwar Dhebar would be sending some ‘saamaan’ to him, and the same had to be further passed on to Sh Ram Gopal Agrawal, treasurer of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee. That thereafter, Chaitanya Baghel used to intimate him one day prior to the supposed delivery of cash from Anwar Dhebar,” the ED states.
“He clarified that he himself used to coordinate with Ram Gopal Agrawal regarding the place of delivery of the ‘saamaan’, which was invariably fixed as Rajiv Bhawan, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. That he clarified that the term ‘saamaan’ was a code word used for cash,” it alleges.
Rajiv Bhawan holds the Chhattisgarh Congress headquarters.
“Between the years 2019-2021, money was delivered to me by Anwar Dhebar almost four times every month. Most of the money was sent to Rajiv Bhawan, Raipur. I have also sent some money to K.K. Srivastava (friend of Bhupesh Baghel) as per the instructions of Chaitanya Baghel,” Bansal allegedly revealed in his statement to the ED that is attached in the prosecution complaint.
“There were around 8-12 cartons/bags at a time (average 10 cartons/bag), and each carton contained around Rs 1 crore. Thus, there were around Rs 8-12 crore in cash at a time. I dealt with around Rs 40 crore in cash in a month. Therefore, in about 24 months, I have handled approximately Rs 960 crore.”
“Out of these Rs 960 crore, Rs 80-100 crore were given to K Srivastava. The remaining Rs 860-880 crore was delivered to Rajiv Bhawan Ramgopalji,” he adds.
The money was allegedly received by one of Agrawal’s assistants at Rajiv Bhawan, identified as Devendra Dadsena. He appeared before the ED on 11 July and 14 July this year, days before the agency arrested Chaitanya Baghel.
The ED has submitted in the complaint that Dadsena confessed to receiving money from Bansal on the behalf of Agrawal, who informed him about the money coming from the liquor syndicate.
“On the basis of the above, the version of Laxminarayan Bansal gets verified. It clearly establishes that the funds generated out of proceeds of crime used to finally end up at Rajiv Bhawan with the office of treasurer of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee,” the agency concludes.
According to the ED, Srivastava referred to by Bansal also confessed to receiving cash amounting to Rs 72 crore from Bansal in Bhilai that he subsequently handed over to a hawala operator in Raipur. The agency said that several drivers of Srivastava were examined, and they corroborated picking up bags from Bhilai and dropping them in Raipur.
Additionally, the agency alleges, Chaitanya recouped proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 18.90 crore in his real estate project named Vitthal Green and Rs 3.10 crore in his real estate firm, Baghel Developers and Associates, based on seizures made during searches, and statements of accountants and other people associated with his firms.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)