Team News Riveting
Raipur, March 26
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday morning raided the houses of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his close associates and senior police officials.
The action is learnt to be related to Mahadev betting App scam. Besides a jailed Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, four Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are among a dozen others who had come under the scanner of the country’s premier investigating agency.
The IPS officials include Anand Chhabar, Arif Sheikh, Abhishek Pallav and Prashant Agarwal. The premises of two Additional SP Abhishek Maheshwari and Sanjay Dhruv besides two constables had also been raided. The house of Maheshwari, who was an influential officer in the Bhupesh Baghel government, has been sealed as he was out.
According to reports, CBI teams are investigating the house of Saumya Chaurasia, who was the Deputy Secretary in the CM Secretariat in the Bhupesh Baghel government, in Bhilai. The teams have also raided the houses of Manish Banchhor and Ashish Verma, who were OSDs to Bhupesh Baghel.
The action of the CBI is going on at more than two dozen places including the capital Raipur and Bhilai. The team is questioning Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya Baghel at his residence in Bhilai. At the same time, Baghel is present at his residence with the families under the strict surveillance of the central security personnel.
The Chhattisgarh government officially handed over the investigation of the Mahadev Betting App scam to the CBI in August 2024. The ED started investigating in January last year, after which it was also handed over to the ACB and Economic Offenses Wing (EOW).
Former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was made an accused in the charge-sheet filed by the ACB on March 4, before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections this year. The police had registered FIR against Bhupesh Baghel under various sections related to cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and forgery and sections 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
