Court gave demand of Soumya and Ranu to EOW

Raipur. EOW has got the remand of Ranu Sahu and Soumya Chaurasia in the coal scam case in Chhattisgarh. The EOW team had reached Raipur Special Court with both of them on production warrant. Here the team had asked for 15 days remand, however, only 5 days remand was received from the court. EOW will now interrogate both of them in the coal scam case till May 27. Earlier, suspended IAS Ranu Sahu and Soumya Chaurasia were lodged in Raipur Central Jail. On Thursday, the court of Judge Atul Srivastava handed over the remand of both of them to EOW.

Defense lawyer Faizal Rizvi said that the EOW has filed the application after the arrest, demanding that remand be granted till June 5. We have opposed this. We have said that one person has been granted bail in the ED case and Ranu Sahu’s bail is pending in the Supreme Court. The bail hearing of Soumya Chaurasia is also to be held in the High Court, hence the arrest is being made again. Some concrete facts have not been presented even for seeking remand. The interrogation has already taken place for 3 days, hence we have objected to the remand. Even before this, the special court had given permission for interrogation for 5 days and then for 3 days.

Then the team interrogated in Raipur Central Jail from March 29 to April 2 and then from April 4 to 7. In the same case, suspended IAS Sameer Vishnoi, Shivshankar Nag and Suryakant Tiwari, who are in jail, have been interrogated. On the report of ED in the coal scam case in Chhattisgarh, ACB-EOW has registered a named FIR against 36 people including two former ministers and MLAs. Meanwhile, the ACB team has started investigation in this matter. ED has so far arrested 11 people in this case including businessman Suryakant Tiwari, officer Soumya Chaurasia working in the secretariat of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, IAS Sameer Vishnoi. Assets worth Rs 222 crore have been attached and investigation into this entire matter is going on. The Enforcement Directorate had filed a complaint with the ACB considering it to be a major economic crime of the state apart from money laundering.