The State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) have registered three separate FIRs in connection with the Chhattisgarh coal transport levy scam. The FIRs name suspended IAS officers Ranu Sahu, Sameer Bishnoi, and State Administrative Service Officer Saumya Chaurasia, charging them under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Each of the accused faces separate cases filed by SEOIACB and it has revealed that Saumya Chaurasia and her family possess 29 immovable properties valued at Rs 9.20 crore.

 

These properties were acquired between 2021 and 2022. Ranu Sahu, who has been suspended, stands accused of purchasing immovable properties worth approximately Rs 4 crore from 2015 to 2022 in her name and in the names of her family members. Her total earnings from the time she began her service until 2022 amount to Rs 92 lakh. Similarly, suspended IAS officer Sameer Bishnoi earned a total salary of Rs 93 lakh from 2010 to 2022. During this period, he acquired several immovable properties valued at Rs 5 crore in the name of his wife, Preeti Godhra. This amount is 500 times his total salary. Sahu, Tauk gets interim bai: Ranu Sahu suspended IAS officer and Dipesh Tank, currently in jail for the coal levy case, have been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court until August 7.

 

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi represented the defense. The order was issued by a double bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Bhuvan. Ranu Sahu is presently held at Raipur Central Jail, and the SEOIACB has filed new FIRs against her in a disproportionate assets case. The ED investigation pertains to a large-scale scam where an illegal levy of Rs 25 was extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh. The scam involved politicians, senior bureaucrats, businessmen, and middlemen. According to ED it was alleged that around Rs 500 crore was collected in 2021. In October 2022, the ED conducted raids at 40 locations associated with top Chhattisgarh bureaucrats, politicians, and businessmen, recovering Rs 4 crore in cash, valuables worth crores, and important documents. Buinessman and other bureaucrats named in the case are also languishing in jail.)