Coal levy scam case: Chhattisgarh EOW, ACB file charge sheet, names 15 people
The charge sheet also named leaders associated with Congress, the then ruling party in the state when the alleged scam took place
Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Economic Offence Wing (EOW) and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) made 15 people, including Saumya Chaursia, who was deputy secretary in former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s office, accused in the alleged coal levy scam and claimed that the accused collected about Rs.318 crore the pretext of coal levy, said officials familiar with the development.

The EOW and ACB also found that some of the accused have used money obtained illegally from coal levies, other minerals, and related industries to buy assets and also gave it to government officials, political leaders and others.
The charge sheet also named leaders associated with Congress, the then ruling party in the state when the alleged scam took place.
The EOW and ACB filed the chargesheet on Friday, seven months after the case was registered on January 1, 2024.
“This is the first charge sheet and we are investigating the case. More supplementary charge sheets will follow in coming months,” said a senior official of EOW.
The EOW, in its charge sheet, claimed that the offence committed by the accused is punishable under Sections 120B, 420, and 384 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Sections 7, 7A, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended by the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018).
“A report has been sent for sanction of prosecution against public servants who are accused in the case, including Soumya Chaurasia, IAS officer Ranu Sahu, IAS officer Sameer Bishnoi, Shivshankar Nag (former deputy director mining ) and Sandeep Kumar Nayak (Assistant mineral officer, Korba). The prosecution sanction is still awaited,” the charge sheet claimed.
The other accused named in the charge sheet are Suryakant Tiwari, Sandeep Nayak, Hemant Jaiswal, Jogender Singh Navneet Tiwari, Chandraprakash Jaiswal, Nikhil Chandrakar, Sheikh Moinuddin Qureshi, Parekh Kumar Kurre, Rahul Singh, Roshan Singh, and Virendra Kumar Jaiswal.
According to the charge sheet, the syndicate earned an undue profit of over Rs.253 crore through the transportation of more than 10 crore tons of coal.
Around Rs.65 crore were taken illegally from the transportation of iron pellets, and approximately Rs.8 crore were taken as illegal levy from Bajrang Power and Ispat, the charge sheet claims. Hence, the accused collected an illegal levy of about Rs.318 crore under the pretext of coal levy, the charge sheet claimed.
Pointing to the role of Chaurasia, the EOW claimed that by virtue of her position in the then chief minister’s office, she used influence to actively assist Suryakant and his associates in forcibly collecting illegal coal levies from coal traders and transporters.
Chaurasia received approximately Rs.32 crore in illegal money from the coal levy syndicate through Suryakant Tiwari’s relative, Manish Upadhyay, it added.
The investigation also found that IAS officer Ranu Sahu, who was a collector of Korba in 2022, supported Suryakant’s coal levy syndicate by helping them collect illegal coal levies from coal traders and transporters.
“Facts are emerging during the investigation, and further investigation is going on regarding these facts, other details, and other accused individuals,” the EOW said.
