Mumbai: ED arrests nine in coal levy scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested nine people and provisionally attached assets worth Rs170 crore as part of its money-laundering probe into the illegal coal levy scam of Chhattisgarh.

The agency, which had carried out searches in multiple cities, including Pune and Delhi, apart from those across Chhattisgarh, had initiated an investigation on the basis of a case registered on the complaint of the Income Tax Department.

The ED’s probe has taken under its scanner an alleged cartel, comprising bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and touts, that was involved in the illegal imposition of a levy of Rs25 per tonne of coal being transported in Chhattisgarh. About Rs540 crore was allegedly acquired by the illegal imposition of the levy, ED sources said.

“So far, nine accused persons were arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and all of them are in judicial custody,” an ED official said.

“A systemic network of extortion was set up, with the active connivance and participation of a large number of bureaucrats. The entire gamut of the extortion racket is being probed,” said the official.

Those arrested included two mining officers who allegedly, knowingly and willingly, assisted the others in extortion, ED sources said. The agency also nabbed a person who allegedly duped people by claiming to work as a middleman to settle cases. During his interrogation, it was discovered that he had also created a fake identity card in the name of a ED officer and also declared himself as an ED employee in various Know Your Customer (KYC) documents submitted to banks.