Explore Business Standard
Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a prosecution complaint before a special court in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur in a money laundering case linked to the alleged coal levy scam, in which an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and three others have been named as accused. The 'prosecution complaint' along with relied upon documents, running into 8000 pages, was filed in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput under Sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), said ED's counsel Saurabh Pandey. IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, coal trader Suryakant Tiwari, the latter's uncle Laxmikant Tiwari and businessman Sunil Agrawal have been named as accused, he added. The ED's prosecution complaint mentioned that an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted for coal transported in the state by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen, he said. Besides, lands purchased through benami ..
The CBI on Wednesday morning raided several residences of West Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak in connection with its probe into a coal smuggling scam, an officer said. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths conducted raids at three houses of Ghatak in Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman district and one in Lake Gardens area of Kolkata. The agency, aided by a huge contingent of central paramilitary personnel, conducted searches in these properties in connection with the scam. Women officers were also part of the team. "As his name surfaced in the coal smuggling scam, we need to find out what was his role in it. We have evidence of Ghatak's involvement in the scam," the CBI officer told PTI. Ghatak was not present in any of his residences when the raids took place. The CBI sleuths took away mobile phones from the state law minister's family members and made them sit in one room in his Asansol houses, he said. The entire areas around Ghatak's residences were surrounded by central forc