Supreme Court grants bail to ex-Deputy Secretary to Bhupesh Baghel in ED case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to bureaucrat Saumya Chaurasia in connection with a money-laundering case [Saumya Chaurasia vs Directorate of Enforcement]..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan rebuked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for keeping Chaurasia under prolonged incarceration for 1.5 years."How long can you keep her under custody? 5 years, 7 years? Despite being woman," Justice Bhuyan asked.Hence, it proceeded to grant interim bail."In view of 1.5 year incarceration and co accused being out on regular bail and charges yet to be framed, without expressing any view on merits, we direct petitioner's release on interim bail subject to terms to satisfaction of trial court," the Court directed.Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave with advocates Pallavi Sharma and Harshwardhan Parganiha appeared for Chaurasia.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for ED..Chaurasia was earlier the Deputy Secretary of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.This was Chaurasia's third bail plea in the matter. The Chhattisgarh High Court had on August 28 rejecting her third bail plea, who has been in jail since December 2022.This led to the appeal before the top court.The matter arose out of a money laundering case in connection with an alleged coal scam in Chhattisgarh..The coal scam involve allegations of extortion and collection of illegal levies for coal mining and transport in the State.According to ED, the amount so scammed was ₹500 crore in 16 months, with the money allegedly being used to fund polls and for various bribes.It is the central agency's case that the funds were used by Chaurasia to purchase benami assets to benefit the coal mafia in connivance with State government officials. Further, she allegedly exerted pressure on fellow officers to comply using her position in the Chief Minister's office.Chaurasia, on the other hand, contended that there was no concrete evidence of her involvement in the alleged scam, and that no recovery of money has been made from her till date..On December 14 last year, the top court had denied bail to Chaurasia. It had even imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on her after finding that certain facts were wrongly stated in her petition.