Coal Scam Case: Suspended IAS Ranu, Soumya, and Sameer Appear Before ACB-EOW Court

After getting bail from the Supreme Court in Chhattisgarh's famous 570 crore coal scam case, suspended IAS Ranu Sahu, Sameer Vishnoi, Saumya Chaurasia and other accused appeared in the special court of ACB-EOW for the first time on Wednesday. During this, they told the special judge of EOW that as per the instructions of the Supreme Court, all live in another state outside Chhattisgarh. Ranu told that she is living at her brother's house in Delhi. Sameer lives with his relative in Kanpur and Saumya lives with her brother in Bangalore.

After registering their presence in the hearing, everyone signed the order sheet. After hearing the arguments of both the parties, the court ordered everyone to appear in the court again on July 23 for the next hearing. Let us tell you that Suryakant Tiwari has not yet got bail in the coal levy scam case. Accused Suryakant did not appear in the court due to special reasons.

The accused have to appear in the court due to being accused in other cases registered in EOW. Everyone's passports are deposited in the special courts. It has been instructed that they will not stay in the state of Chhattisgarh till further orders. As required, they will have to appear before the investigating agency or trial court. The accused will have to fully cooperate with the investigating agencies. The Supreme Court has granted conditional bail to Saumya Chaurasia, Ranu Sahu, Sameer Vishnoi, accused in the coal levy scam. Suryakant Tiwari is yet to get bail in this case.

ED investigation revealed that some people, in connivance with senior politicians and bureaucrats of the state, made illegal recovery from those transporting coal by making the permit available online offline. Between July 2020 and June 2022, an illegal levy of Rs 25 was collected on every tonne of coal. An order was issued for this on 15 July 2020.

The then Director of Mineral Department IAS Sameer Bishroi had issued the order. This permit is given to coal traders in coal transportation. Kingpin coal trader Suryakant Tiwari was considered to be the mastermind of the entire case. In this, only the trader who paid the money would get peat and transport pass from the mineral department, this amount was deposited with Suryakant's employees at the rate of Rs 25 per ton. In this way, a total of Rs 570 crore was recovered by scamming.