ED raids in Chhattisgarh in fresh case days after SC cautioned

Raipur: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches against some IAS officers and a Congress politician in Chhattisgarh as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said.

The premises linked to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ranu Sahu, some other bureaucrats and Chhattisgarh Congress leader and PCC treasurer Ramgopal Agarwal were being raided, they said.

Visuals showed central paramilitary personnel outside the residences of IAS officer Sahu and Agrawal in Raipur and Korba Municipal Corporation Commissioner Prabhakar Pandey in Korba.

The action is being undertaken after the federal agency registered a fresh case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

While the exact case in which the raids were being conducted was not known, sources said it could be linked to an alleged rice scam.  The agency has been probing an alleged coal levy and liquor scam in the state in which it has arrested some prominent bureaucrats, including IAS officers, apart from politicians and those linked to them.

On July 18, the Supreme Court asked the agency to "stay their hand in all manner" in the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam linked money laundering case in Chhattisgarh.