Team News Riveting
Raipur, October 13
The wife of the arrested Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in Chhattisgarh called on Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and lodged a complaint against the central agency.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested the 2009-batch IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and two coal traders in connection with a money laundering case. Vishnoi, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, is currently posted as the CEO of the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society. He is also the ex-officio Joint Secretary of Electronics and Information Technology and Director, Geology, and had held the Mining department besides working as MD, Chhattisgarh State Minerals Development Corporation.
In an unprecedented move, the wife of an arrested IAS officer approached the Chief Minister even as the ED was completing the legal formalities and presenting him in the court of law. The wife met Baghel at the helipad and allegedly complained that the central agency was harassing the family members.
The Chief Minister had already issued the statement, hitting out at the BJP-led government at the Centre for harassing the opposition-ruled states.
Besides the IAS officer, businessman Sunil Agrawal of the Indramani group and Laxmikant Tiwari, uncle of “absconding” businessman Suryakant Tiwari, have also been taken into custody in the morning by the federal agency from state capital Raipur, they said.
Two other IAS officers are also in the radar. The 2010-batch IAS officer and District Collector of Raigarh, Ranu Sahu today wrote a letter to the investigating officer of ED and assured full cooperation. She was reportedly in Hyderabad for a minor surgery when ED struck at her premises two days ago.
The ED team today reached the Collectorate and started the investigation. Meanwhile, Ranu’s husband and same batch IAS officer J P Maurya is also reported to be “absconding”. He is Mining Director and has come under the scanner of the economic intelligence agency.
