The office of Bhupesh Baghel claimed that the action was politically motivated and connected with a controversial matter the Congress had planned to bring to the state Assembly.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided the Bhilai home of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and veteran Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel. Officials familiar with the matter confirmed the raid but declined to provide details about the specific case behind the operation.
The raid's timing provoked scathing political responses. The office of Bhupesh Baghel claimed that the action was politically motivated and connected with a controversial matter that the Congress had planned to bring to the state Assembly.
"Today is the final day of the assembly session. The matter of cutting trees for Adani in Tamnar was to be brought up. Saheb has dispatched ED to Bhilai Niwas," read a post from Baghel's official handle on X (formerly Twitter).
The Congress party sought to raise the issue of mass tree cutting in Raigarh's Tamnar tehsil on the last day of the monsoon session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly. The party leaders charged the ED raid with an intent to deflect attention and quell opposition to corporate-backed deforestation in the state.
Baghel also resides with his son Chaitanya Baghel in Bhilai, who has been in ED's sight earlier. The ED carried out identical raids on Chaitanya in March for his involvement in a money laundering case related to an alleged liquor scam.
The ED had previously said that Chaitanya Baghel was under suspicion as the "recipient" of crime proceeds in the liquor scam case. The agency reported that the scam resulted in a whopping loss to the Chhattisgarh exchequer and yielded more than ₹2,100 crore of unlawful profits for a liquor syndicate.
Proceeds of the racket, officials say, were laundered and sent through a string of entities involving several individuals, including political leaders.
Friday’s ED action is not Bhupesh Baghel’s first encounter with central investigative agencies. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier raided Baghel’s residence in March in connection with the Mahadev betting app case.
Then, Baghel had asserted that the CBI raid was timed to give political ammunition before the rally on March 30 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He accused central agencies of using them to target opposition leaders unjustly.
"This raid was politically motivated, meant to provide content for the PM's speech," Baghel had said in a press interaction after the raid in March.
While political heat is building up in Chhattisgarh, the new ED raids have fanned the flames, with the Congress charging that the government at the center is abusing investigative agencies to silence opposition voices and safeguard corporate interests.
