NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) not to create an atmosphere of fear after the Chhattisgarh Government accused the probe agency of “running amok” and attempting to implicate Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money laundering case connected with an alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in the state.
“Even a bona fide cause becomes suspect when you behave like this…. Don’t create an atmosphere of fear,” a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who represented the ED.
The court’s comments came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing the Chhattisgarh Government, alleged that the state excise department officials had complained that the ED was threatening them and their family members with arrest and was trying to implicate CM Baghel. The officers, the government claimed, had said they would not work in the department.
“The ED is running amok. They are threatening excise officers. It’s a shocking state of affairs. Now elections are coming and that’s why it’s happening,” Sibal told the Bench, which also included Justice A Amanullah, during a hearing on petitions filed by two persons from Chhattisgarh challenging money laundering proceedings initiated by the ED against them. The state government has filed an application seeking to be heard in the matter.
Denying the allegations levelled by the Chhattisgarh Government, ASG Raju asserted that the ED was simply probing the liquor scam in the state. The money laundering case being probed by the ED emanates from a 2022 Income-Tax Department chargesheet filed in a Delhi court.
The ED alleged that there was a massive scam in liquor trade in Chhattisgarh and a syndicate of senior state government officials, private persons and political executives generated over Rs 2,000 crore black money during 2019-22.
The agency alleged that bribes were collected from Chhattisgarh distillers on per liquor case basis procured from Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited and country liquor was being sold off-the-books. According to the ED, bribes were taken from distillers to allow them to form a cartel and have a fixed market share.