The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) not to create an “atmosphere of fear” after the Chhattisgarh government alleged the probe agency was “running amok” and trying to implicate chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 2,000-crore liquor scam in the state.

The state government alleged before a bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and A. Amanullah that several state excise department officials had complained the ED was threatening them and their family members with arrest and was “trying to implicate the CM (chief minister)”. The officers, the government claimed, have said they will not work in the department.

“The ED is running amok. They are threatening excise officers,” senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Chhattisgarh, told the bench. “It is a shocking state of affairs. Now elections are coming and that is why it is happening.”

Additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju, appearing for the ED, countered the allegations and said the agency was probing a scam in the state.

“Even a bonafide cause becomes suspect when you behave like this,” the bench observed, adding, “Don’t create an atmosphere of fear.”

Last month, Chhattisgarh became the first state to move the apex court challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), alleging that central investigating agencies were being misused to “intimidate, harass and disturb” the normal functioning of the non-BJP state government.

The Baghel-led Congress government has filed an original suit through advocate Sumeer Sodhi challenging the law under Article 131, which empowers a state to move the Supreme Court directly in matters of dispute with the Centre or any other state.

The apex court was on Tuesday hearing a plea filed by two Chhattisgarh-based persons, one of whom has been arrested by the ED in connection with the case, challenging the proceedings initiated by the agency.

The state has filed an application seeking impleadment in the petition, claiming that 52 officers of the excise department have complained in writing alleging “mental and physical torture” by ED officers.

In its application, the state has claimed: “Several officers have made serious allegations that not only were they threatened but the members of the family of the officers were also physically abused and threatened to sign blank pages or pre-typed documents.

“The officers in the state are being threatened by the officers of the Directorate of Enforcement with threat of their arrest or arrest of their family members and being implicated in cases if they do not make and sign the statement as desired by the officers and to implicate the chief minister and other senior officers of the state administration.”

The bench asked the ED to respond.