New Delhi: He used his real estate projects and his contacts to try to launder about Rs 1,000 crore generated by a liquor syndicate, personally getting over Rs 16 crore for his efforts: This is the Enforcement Directorate’s case against Chhattisgarh ex-chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya Baghel.
Chaitanya is currently in ED’s custody, after being arrested on 18 July, ironically his birthday. Chaitanya, the only son of Bhupesh Baghel, was arrested from their Bhilai residence in an investigation into irregularities in the excise policy during the Congress government’s tenure from 2018 to 2023.
The federal probe agency submitted a list of allegations against Chaitanya Baghel in its remand application, which was moved before the Special PMLA Court in Raipur.
The money laundering investigation stems from an FIR filed by Chhattisgarh’s Economic Offences Wing in January 2024 against 70 individuals and entities, including the then excise minister Kawasi Lakhma and top bureaucrats of the time. Lakhma was earlier arrested in the same case by the ED, and he is still in judicial custody.
In its remand application, the agency alleged that Chaitanya had not cooperated and concealed crucial facts, and so he had to be arrested—a claim strongly refuted by his legal team. “He was never summoned for questioning, and neither were his statements recorded under section 50 of the PMLA. A case has been built based on the statement of a co-accused who is walking free after making statements implicating Chaitanya in the case. This is a pick-and-choose approach of the ED, devoid of consistent application of the law,” his lawyer, Faisal Rizvi, told ThePrint.
The ED’s case is largely based on the statements of another accused in the case, Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu, a cash courier, who has alleged that he moved about Rs 1,000 crore on Chaitanya’s directions, and that this cash was the proceeds of the liquor policy syndicate.
‘Cash courier, undervalued construction projects’
Chaitanya, a doctor by profession who owns a real estate firm named Baghel Developers, came under scrutiny from the agency first in March when officials raided his family’s residence in Bhilai in connection with the liquor policy scam.
The Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing and the ED have alleged that the liquor syndicate was run by Anwar Dhebar, brother of the former Raipur mayor, Aijaz Dhebar. Anwar, in association with suspended IAS officer Anil Tuteja, managed the overall liquor supply, collecting commissions on the ground, and transferring kickbacks to ministers and officials allegedly part of the syndicate. The syndicate caused a loss of revenue to the tune of more than Rs 3,100 crore to the state government during the Congress rule.
Explaining granular details of the case against Chaitanya, the ED said in its remand application that as part of his efforts to launder the proceeds of crime for the liquor syndicate, Chaitanya carried out illegal transactions worth Rs 5 crore with a firm called Saheli Jewellers.
The agency has alleged that a large part of the overall Rs 3,100 crore estimated proceeds of crime generated by the liquor policy syndicate was moved by Pappu. Pappu has confessed that he received Rs 136 crore in three months from syndicate kingpin Anwar Dhebar and delivered it to different businessmen on Chaitanya’s instructions.
Of this, the agency says, Pappu moved Rs 1,000 crore for Chaitanya. “He used to collect these proceeds of crime from Anwar Dhebar via Dipen Chawda and thereafter he delivered the said funds to Shri Ram Gopal Agarwal in coordination with you (Chaitanya),” the agency alleged in the remand application, which ThePrint has seen.
The agency further alleged that proceeds of crime were adjusted in a real estate project of Chaitanya’s firm by undervaluing the project cost on paper. The agency alleges the actual cost of the project would be around Rs 13 to 15 crore, but was shown to be Rs 7.14 crore.
Even out of the documented cost of Rs 7.14 crore, only Rs 2.62 crore was documented as payment to the construction company involved in the project. The remaining amount, the agency alleges, was paid in cash from the proceeds of the liquor syndicate.
The ED further submitted that proceeds of crime were also laundered through indirect purchases of flats in Baghel Developers’ projects, the money for which was paid indirectly by Chaitanya himself. For instance, the agency documented that the controller of two firms, Dhillon Drinks and Dhillon City Mall—Trilok Singh Dhillon paid Rs 5 crore to Baghel Developers to purchase flats in the name of his “employees”.
The entire scheme, the agency alleged, was designed to incorporate the entry of proceeds of crime as a legitimate inflow of funds into the books of Baghel Developers.
“Thus, based on findings of investigation, it is evident that Chaitanya Baghel is in receipt of proceeds of crime of Rs 16.70 crore and has also played an important role in handling of more than Rs 1,000 crore originating out of proceeds of crime. Chaitanya Baghel had concealed the true origin of the proceeds of crime by assimilating it in his project, so as to project the same as untainted,” the agency submitted.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)