6 key accused in Chhattisgarh ‘coal scam’ freed from jail after SC grants bail

RAIPUR:

Two days after being granted interim bail by Supreme Court, six accused in the Rs 570 crore coal-levy scam in Chhattisgarh -- including suspended IAS officers Ranu Sahu and Sameer Vishnoi, and former deputy secretary in then CM Bhupesh Baghel's office, Saumya Chaurasia -- walked out of Raipur jail on Saturday morning.While the apex court had approved their bail on Thursday, officials say their release was delayed by a day due to late arrival of formal release orders at the prison. Businessmen Rajnikant Tiwari, Virendra Jaiswal and Sandeep Nayak are the other three released from prison. Family members of the accused were present outside the prison to receive them.The SC bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta granted bail to eight accused, but six were released on Saturday.

Two others — businessman Suryakant Tiwari, alleged kingpin of the scam, and Nikhil Chandrakar — remain in custody due to pending cases.SC directed that all released individuals must leave Chhattisgarh immediately and must not reside in the state until further orders, citing concerns about potential witness tampering.They are required to submit their passports to the special court, provide their residential address outside Chhattisgarh within a week, inform local police of their new address, cooperate fully with investigation agencies and appear in court whenever required.

While Chaurasia spent nearly two and a half years in prison, Vishnoi was behind bars around a month longer, and Sahu for just over 22 months.Reacting to their release, Chhattisgarh minister Ramvichar Netam said, “Getting bail doesn’t mean the crime didn’t happen. The investigation will continue and more names will surface.” Minister Kedar Kashyap added, “Those involved in corruption will keep going in and out of jail.

Even Congress leaders are on bail. The guilty will not be spared.”Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that the scam involves a ‘syndicate’ of a section of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen who extorted money from coal transporters, generating over Rs 570 crore in illegal levies.The alleged scam involved turning online transport permits into offline ones — a move authorized on July 15, 2020, by then mining director Sameer Vishnoi — which allowed selective issuance of permits in exchange for bribes.

Coal traders were allegedly forced to pay Rs 25 per ton to receive transport clearances.Tiwari, according to ED, collected the money through his employees and coordinated with officials for smooth issuance of permits. Those complying with the extortion were allegedly rewarded with permits from the mining department.Defence counsel Faizal Rizvi on Friday told the Press that SC has issued release of eight persons but as of now six of them are getting released, while other two, businessmen Suryakant Tiwari and Nikhil Chandrakar is still pending due to other cases against them and they will continue to remain in judicial custody.