Raipur: A staycation at the upmarket Taj Rishikesh hotel, renovation of her farmhouse, and the purchase of Apple gadgets, gold jewellery and land worth crores under the names of relatives — this is how Saumya Chaurasia, the Deputy Secretary of Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, used the money from the multi-crore coal levy extortion scam, ThePrint has learnt.
Documents exclusively seen by ThePrint, give new insight into the evidence which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (I-T) teams have gathered against private individuals, government servants, IAS and IPS officers allegedly involved in the “coal levy scam”, an estimate of which is between Rs 500 crore and Rs 800 crore.
The state government officials are alleged to have extorted an illegal levy of Rs 25 on every tonne of coal transported by buyers from mines in Chhattisgarh by tweaking policies and establishing a “well-oiled network”.
Funds from the alleged extortion racket were paid to politicians, including MLAs, and used for “election-related work”, the ED sources said. The beneficiaries also included Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers.
The allegations, however, were dismissed as “bogus” by advocate Faizal Rizvi, who is representing Chaurasia and another accused Laxmikant Tiwari in the case.
“It is all political,” Rizvi claimed. “The raids that were conducted at Chaurasia’s and Tiwari’s residence have not yielded any concrete evidence. No material was recovered. A case was registered by CBI earlier against Mr Baghel in 2018 also when elections were around the corner. They have started again to prepare for the 2023 elections.”
Arrested in Raipur last week, Chaurasia is the second high-profile arrest made in the case after IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi. Sunil Agrawal, who heads the Indramani Group, and Tiwari, a relative of fraud-accused businessman Suryakant Tiwari, have also been arrested.
ED’s electronic evidence
To corroborate the allegations against Chaurasia, a 2008-batch State Administrative Service (SAS) officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, the sources said, the ED has recovered diaries with over 3,500 entries, ledger books, excel sheets, over 100 GB of WhatsApp chats, bills and audio notes, in which details of these transactions have been recorded.
Besides this, statements of businessmen from whom the money was allegedly extorted, people from whom the properties were purchased, and government officials who amended the policy of transportation of coal, have also corroborated the allegations, sources said. All this is crucial evidence, sources said.
A case under sections of extortion and criminal conspiracy, was first registered by the Bengaluru Police in July on a complaint by the I-T department, based on which the ED registered a money laundering case in September to probe the “tainted money and the proceeds of crime”.
Booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Chaurasia, however, is just one character in this case.
The ED in October arrested Suryakant Tiwari, who is said to be related to politicians in Chhattisgarh and was allegedly running the entire racket, along with his associate Laxmikant Tiwari, IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and businessman Sunil Agarwal.
The alleged extortion of the said levy, the sources said, was being done by Tiwari, who created a network by positioning his employees in coal-rich regions, in connivance with government employees, top bureaucrats and politicians.
“Tiwari along with his associates and family members ran this syndicate for two years. They maintained hand-written detailed diaries to keep an account of this loot which runs into between Rs 500 crore and Rs 800 crore,” a source, privy to the investigation, said.
“Officials from the geology and mining department, mining development corporation, collectors, police and seniors responsible to supervise the work for regulating coal allocation and transportation by fair means were themselves the beneficiary of the syndicate.”
The money collected was used to purchase benami assets, and was layered into creating assets to ultimately claim them as untainted assets, the source said. While one IAS officer got a farmhouse made, another started a rice mill with the tainted money in his brother’s name, the source added.
“We have found that a large part of money was routed through channels and layered transactions and brought into the mainstream by investing to acquire the properties and coal washeries. Moreover, Tiwari had become a powerful man who was privy to confidential government information,” the source added.
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‘Land deals, layering of proceeds of crime’
A plot in Durg, and one each in Sevti and in Jevra were allegedly purchased by Chaurasia under the name of her relatives from tainted money, investigators said.
While two of these properties were bought in the name of Chaurasia’s mother, one is in the name of her cousin. According to the sources, Chaurasia also purchased an apartment in another relative’s name, where her domestic help stays.
According to records available with the investigators, a property purchased for around Rs 56 lakh was sold within three months of purchase for Rs. 2.27 crore. This, according to the sources, was done to arrange cheque money for purchase of more lands.
“The cheque amount for another land is Rs 2.4 crore whereas as per evidence, at least an amount of Rs. 4.5 crore cash was infused out of proceeds of crime. Similarly, the registration amount for a third property is around Rs 45 lakh whereas an entry of Rs 3 crore cash was found which was paid by Suryakant Tiwari in cash for purchase of this land,” a second source said.
“The amount is reflected in the diaries seized by the I-T department and dates match the date of registration of above lands,” the second source said.
ED’s investigation also found that large amounts of cash was allegedly given to Chaurasia through her associate Manish Uppadhaya to do land deals.
“The evidence collected so far indicates that more than Rs. 7.5 crore has flown out of the proceeds of crime generated by the coal syndicate for the land dealings of Saumya and her family,” the second source said.
According to the sources, Chaurasia’s family members have allegedly taken bank entries from their overseas relatives, taken unsecured bogus loan entries from distant relatives to first create bank balances. These bank balances were then infused with extorted cash amounts and used to buy land with minimum guidance rate.
“Many of the transactions between the family members defy accounting logic and have been done only to layer the proceeds of crime and to claim them as untainted assets,” the source said.
“Properties were purchased with Shanti Devi Chaurasia and Anurag Chaurasia (Saumya’s mother and cousin) as benamidars whereas the beneficial owners are Saumya and her husband Saurabh Modi,” the second source said. “She helped in acquisition of proceeds of crime and is involved in its concealment, layering and use, and has thus committed the offence of money laundering.” .
The I-T department has also issued show cause notice under the Benami Act to Saumya Chaurasia in this regard.
But the officer’s lawyer claimed all these land deals are declared properties. “She has replied to all the I-T queries about these said properties. These are all declared properties and nothing is hidden. Among these three properties, one is in the name of her husband who had even taken a loan from SBI for the same. How can these be called benami?” he asked.
‘Blueprint recovered from Mercedes’
It was during an I-T search in June that some loose papers with a “blueprint of how to make money from transportation of coal and iron ore” were recovered from a Mercedes of Suryakant Tiwari, the sources said.
The papers, they said, detailed a calculation of earning Rs 500 crore in just 16 months.
The plan was to replace the existing online system of getting a transit pass for a Delivery Order (DO) of coal, by a manual system and to charge Rs 25 per tonne on each dispatch, sources said.
With a monopoly over coal mines in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) is the largest coal-producing company of India. Any company buying coal has to apply to SECL, make the payment and then a DO is issued. Once the DO is issued, SECL deducts the state’s share of the money and in return the job of the state is to give a transport permit for dispatch of that coal.
Earlier the royalty payment was offline but the entire process switched to online in 2018. Which means that once a company had the DO, it could download the transport permit online.
This system, the sources said, was disrupted by Tiwari in connivance with government officials to make illegitimate money.
“In that note, Tiwari has written that a transit pass of a DO needs to be issued by the mining officer manually and the existing system of online approval needs to be removed. To justify the shift, the blueprint mentions, it would be blamed on an ‘error in the system’,” a second source said.
Following these instructions on 15 July 2020, Sameer Vishnoi, a 2009 batch IAS officer who is the Director Mining, issued a notification saying every transporter after getting the DO has to apply for a NOC for a permit. This notification, the sources said, was issued without following any proper procedure or without having any SOP and was implemented overnight, so that the illegal collection could start.
“Then, the coal users — from big to small companies — were called and told that they will have to pay Rs 25 per tonne for a NOC,” the second source said. “The mining officer stopped issuing transit permits on the Delivery Challan till this cash was paid. We have a list of all the DOs that were issued since 2020, which are now under probe.”
A second lawyer, Harshwardhan, who is also representing Chaurasia, however, said the notification was shifted to “check pilferage of coal”. This shift, he said, helped in “increasing the revenue of the state”.
“The procedure was made manual to put in place checks and balances. The implementation of coal and mineral policy on the ground is done by district officials. It was found that based on the online permit that was issued, multiple trips were made by one truck on the same permit, since there was none to check it. This led to loss to exchequer. Once the system was shifted to manual, that stopped,” he said.
Regarding the documents seized from Tiwari’s car, Rizvi scoffed at their mention.
“Who will keep a blueprint of a planned crime in a car? The fact is that Tiwari was detained illegally in Bangalore after the raid on 30 July and brought to Raipur. He was forced to give a statement against Chaurasia and was told that he would be given a good government position if he got 20-25 MLAs to join the BJP. He has given an official complaint about it to the local police in Raipur,” Tiwari’s lawyer said.
The case by the Bangalore Police was lodged under IPC sections of criminal conspiracy and destroying evidence but the charge of extortion was added to the FIR later, which then became a scheduled offence to bring the ED into the picture, Rizvi alleged.
“This was an afterthought to add the section of extortion so that it becomes a scheduled offence. It was done after the Raipur Police started probing Tiwari’s complaint,” he added.
Excel sheets, chats & witnesses
According to investigators, Tiwari put eight people, all his associates, incharge of eight regions and messages were sent across to mining officers instructing that no permit will be cleared unless the levy is paid, the sources said.
The message was also allegedly sent across to industrialists, coal transporters and representatives of companies.
“The officers were told that the DO will be issued and NOC given after consultation with these eight individuals. This cash was collected and then consolidated in Raipur. The collection figure was also given to Tiwari for accounting who then made handwritten cash ledgers for it,” the first source said.
To substantiate these, the sources said, ledgers in which these accounts were maintained, have been recovered. Moreover, chats of Tiwari’s associates with mining officers discussing these payments and issuance of permits have also been recovered, sources said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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