By Kritika Gangwar
Saumya Chaurasia, a former deputy secretary in the CMO during the previous run government of Congress was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)
in relation to her involvement in the liquor scam from 2019 and 2022.
Ms. Chaurasia served as the Deputy Secretary during the tenure of the Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel of Chattisgarh.
She was arrested on Tuesday evening and will be produced before court on Wednesday as Saurabh Kumar Pande, ED’s counsel told PTI.
Recently, Ms. Chaurasia was released from Raipur jail this year after the Supreme Court granted her bail in May, allegedly accused for her involvement in the coal levy scam for which she was arrested in 2022 along with six other allegedly accused which included two suspended IAS officers, Ranu Sahu and Sameer Vishnoi.
The court had ordered the released individuals to leave the state and not reside in Chattisgarh until further notice.
For the liquor scam case, the ED on January 15th had arrested Kawasi Lakhma, Congress MLA and former exercise minister along with former Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya Baghel on July 18.
71-year-old Kawasi Lakhma was allegedly the primary beneficiary of most of the crime and received a lot of cash while he was in power as the excise minister, according to the ED.
It also claimed that Chaitanya Baghel managed around ₹1,000 crore earned from the scam and he was the one leading the entire group involved in the alleged liquor scam.
There was a loss of more than ₹2,500 crore to the State exchequer while the members of the liquor scam made profit out of it, the alleged scam took place when the Congress government was led by then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel between 2019 and 2022 as said by the ED.
The liquor scam is still under investigation with authorities estimating the total illegal proceeds of around ₹3,200 crore.