New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear after a week the Chhattisgarh government’s appeal challenging the bail granted to Chaitanya Baghel, son of former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, in alleged liquor scam cases.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N V Anjaria was told by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Chhattisgarh, that one of the vital witnesses in the case was not coming forward after Chaitanya Baghel was granted bail.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has separately challenged his bail in a related money laundering case.
The bench said it would hear the matter after a week.
The top court also dealt with a separate plea filed by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia, who was arrested by the ED in December last year in connection with the alleged liquor scam in the state.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Chaurasia, said the apex court had earlier granted bail to Chaurasia in other cases in which she was arrested.
“They have again registered a fresh FIR and arrested her in December,” Rohatgi said, adding this is the sixth time that she has been arrested.
The bench asked her to approach the Chhattisgarh High Court for bail.
It said she may file her petition before the high court within a week and the high court may take her plea on a priority basis and decide it within two weeks.
The bench was also informed that Chaurasia was also arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in a separate case on January 2.
The top court said she may move the high court to seek bail in that case as well.
Chaurasia, who was earlier granted bail by the apex court in the coal levy scam case, was re-arrested in the liquor cases by the probe agencies.
On January 15, the apex court deferred the hearing on the Chhattisgarh government’s appeal challenging the grant of bail to Chaitanya Baghel.
While the state government alleged that Chaitanya Baghel was one of the prime accused and masterminds in the sensational case, his counsel had argued that the high court delivered a well-considered judgement in the case in which the probe was ongoing for the last two years.
On January 2, the high court granted bail to Chaitanya Baghel in two cases linked to the alleged liquor scam.
The single bench of Justice Arvind Kumar Verma allowed Chaitanya Baghel’s bail pleas in a case lodged by the ED and another by the Chhattisgarh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)/EOW.
In its order on the bail application in the ED’s case, the high court noted that the applicant’s alleged role was “significantly lesser” than that of several senior accused who have already been granted bail.
It said the alleged kingpins and principal beneficiaries Anwar Dhebar, Anil Tuteja, Arvind Singh, Arunpati Tripathi and Trilok Singh Dhillon have already been enlarged on bail by the Supreme Court, and denying bail to the applicant would violate the well-established principle of parity.
The high court observed that the investigation was largely documentary in nature and that Chaitanya Baghel had remained in custody for a considerable period.
It said the evidentiary value of the material collected by the ED, including statements under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and financial and digital records, would be tested during trial and not conclusively assessed at the bail stage.
In a separate order granting him bail in the ACB/EOW case, the HC said it was a “grave violation of law” that the investigating officer failed to arrest Lakshmi Narayan Bansal (an accused in the case) despite a permanent/open-ended warrant issued by the special court.
The ED arrested Chaitanya Baghel on July 18 last year in its money laundering probe in the alleged scam, while the ACB/EOW placed him under arrest while he was in jail on September 24 in its case linked to the corruption probe.
The liquor “scam” in the state, according to the ED, was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when Chhattisgarh was governed by the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress dispensation.
The alleged scam resulted in a “massive loss” to the state exchequer and filled the pockets of the beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate, it claimed.
According to the ED, Chaitanya Baghel was at the helm of the syndicate behind the alleged liquor scam and personally handled nearly Rs 1,000 crore generated through the scandal.
The ACB/EOW has claimed Chaitanya Baghel, along others managed the proceeds of crime at a higher level, and received around Rs 200-250 crore as his share.
The proceeds of crime linked to the scam could exceed Rs 3,500 crore, the state agency had claimed. PTI ABA SJK DIV DIV
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