The Enforcement Directorate on Friday raided the house of former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in Bhilai and arrested his businessman son Chaitanya in connection with a liquor scam case, prompting the Congress leader to accuse the Centre of preventing him from raising a key issue on the Adani group in the Assembly session.
Baghel claimed the ED action came on a day he was set to flag in the Assembly the felling of trees for a coal mine project by the Adani group in the Tamnar tehsil of Raigarh district.
Baghel also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, terming the arrest as “gifts” on his son’s birthday.
“ED has arrived. Today is the last day of the Assembly session. The issue of trees being cut in Tamnar for Adani was supposed to be raised today,” Baghel said in a post on X on Friday.
Congress MLAs led by Baghel boycotted the Assembly proceedings to protest Chaitanya’s arrest.
Earlier this month, Baghel had visited Tamnar to support the tribals protesting the cutting of trees. The mine has been allotted to Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MAHAGENCO), which has given the MDO (mine developer cum operator) contract to the Adani group.
“On the final day of the Assembly session, when we were set to raise the Adani issue in the House, Modi and Shah sent the ED to my home to please their master (Adani). They can put as much pressure as they want, but Bhupesh Baghel will not be scared and will not bow down,” Baghel told reporters outside his Bhilai house.
He said investigative agencies such as the ED, CBI and Income Tax were being misused to suppress dissent.
“They are targeting Opposition leaders across the country, trying to strangle democracy. While the Election Commission is disenfranchising voters in Bihar, these agencies are being weaponised to attack the Opposition. Still, we believe in democracy and the judiciary, and we will continue cooperating,” Baghel said.
The ED has alleged that the corruption in the excise department began in 2019 and continued till 2022, when the Congress was in power in Chhattisgarh.
“A probe has revealed that Chaitanya allegedly received proceeds from the liquor scam and that a portion of the funds was laundered through real estate firms operated by Chaitanya and his close associates,” an agency official said.
The ED, however, has not clarified Baghel’s role in the alleged case.
The central agency had earlier said the Chhattisgarh liquor scam resulted in “massive loss” to the state exchequer and filled the pockets of the beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate with more than ₹2,100 crore.
The central agency alleged that the syndicate, led by some Congress leaders and a retired IAS officer, altered the liquor policy and created a parallel system to sell liquor. It also accused the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited of procuring liquor only from those paying a commission to the syndicate, and that a substantial portion of the money went to the Congress.
Questioning the timing of Chaitanya’s arrest, which coincided with his birthday, Baghel in a post in Hindi on X said: “The kind of birthday gifts that Modi and Shah give, no one else in any democracy in the world can give. On my birthday, both respected leaders sent ED to the homes of my adviser and two OSDs. And now, on my son Chaitanya’s birthday, an ED team is raiding my house. Thank you for these gifts. I will remember them for life.”
On March 10, the ED had raided the properties linked to Baghel and his son as part of a money-laundering probe connected to the alleged liquor scam. The Congress had then said the raids were a ploy to divert attention from the issues on which the Opposition sought to corner the government on a day the budget session of Parliament resumed.
