'Headline management by BJP': Congress on ED raids on Chhattisgarh ex-CM Bhupesh Baghel's son

New Delhi: Premises of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel and his associates were searched by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in connection with a money laundering investigation allegedly involving his son in the alleged liquor scam case and seized around Rs 30-33 lakh.

Claiming that the raids were due to BJP’s “frustration”, Baghel said the ED found Rs 32-33 lakh cash in his house where his wife, three daughters, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren live with him. He downplayed the discovery of cash saying that he has a “big family and does farming on 140 acres” besides having other sources of income.

Congress said the raids in Chhattisgarh were a "conspiracy" to "manage headlines" on a day when Parliament's Budget session reconvened and claimed that such actions would not stop Congress in Punjab, where Baghel is in-charge of party affairs.

A number of Congress workers gathered outside Baghel's house in Bhilai as the searches progressed and later they staged a protest against the ED.

Officials said 14 premises in Durg district belonging to Baghel and his son Chaitanya in Bhilai, his close associate Laxmi Narayan Bansal and others were searched under The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Chaitanya, who is suspected to be the recipient of the proceeds of crime of the liquor scam, shares the Bhilai accommodation with his father. Around 15 premises are raided in Chhattisgarh.

According to the ED, the Chhattisgarh liquor "scam" resulted in "massive loss" to the state exchequer with beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate garnering around Rs 2,100 crore. The ED had arrested former minister Kawasi Lakhma in this case in January besides Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar, former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer Arunpati Tripathi and others.

The alleged scam took place between 2019 and 2022 when Baghel was at the helm of affairs in Chhattisgarh.

The Supreme Court had last year quashed ED's first case based on an Income Tax Department complaint. However, the ED later filed a fresh case after it asked the Chhattisgarh EOW/ACB to file a fresh FIR on the basis of material shared by it. Assets worth around Rs 205 crore have been attached by the agency so far.

The EOW/ACB FIR had named 70 individuals and companies, including Lakhma and former Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand among others.

Congress Media and Publicity Department chairman Pawan Khera posted on 'X', "today, when the Parliament session is starting, the BJP, which is surrounded from all sides, in order to change the headline and divert the country's attention from tariff, falling economy, voter list fraud etc., got the house of senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel-ji raided by ED since this morning. BJP should understand that it will neither be able to stop Congress nor any of our leaders."

On Baghel's handle, his office posted, "I am not afraid, nor will I be afraid. When the false case going on for seven years was dismissed in the court, today the guests of ED have entered the Bhilai residence of former Chief Minister, Congress General Secretary Bhupesh Baghel this morning. If someone is trying to stop Congress in Punjab through this conspiracy, then it is a misunderstanding. - Office (Bhupesh Baghel)."