Raipur
The Enforcement Directorate has made a startling disclosure in the alleged NAN (Nagrik Aapurti Nigam) scam in Chhattisgarh. According to the ED, retired IAS officers Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla, accused in the scam, were allegedly in contact with the judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court who granted them bail.
The ED submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court on August 1, revealing this information. Although the affidavit does not mention the judge’s name, it is identified through WhatsApp chat details.
The ED claims that both accused were in contact with the judge through his brother regarding their anticipatory bail case. The accused were granted bail in October 2019, and subsequently, the judge’s brother was appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission.
The ED reported that several WhatsApp chats dated between July 31, 2019, and August 11, 2019, were found and shared with the Supreme Court. These chats indicate that the bio-data of the High Court judge’s daughter and son-in-law was sent to then IAS officer Anil Kumar Tuteja through Satish Chandra Verma.
Approximately two years ago, during a Supreme Court hearing in 2022, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta raised this issue. He mentioned that a WhatsApp chat of an alleged close associate of the then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel revealed that the Chief Minister met a judge two days before the bail was granted to some accused in the NAN scam. This judge was associated with the Bilaspur High Court.
In response, Baghel called these allegations extremely unfortunate. He accused the Solicitor General of making false and malicious allegations for political purposes, and clarified that he never requested any favor from any judge for any accused. He claimed that this was a conspiracy to tarnish his political image and pressurize the judiciary.
After the 2018 Assembly elections, the government changed in Chhattisgarh. On December 17, 2018, Bhupesh Baghel, then President of the State Congress, was sworn in as Chief Minister. Shortly after, a SIT (Special Investigation Team) was formed to investigate the NAN scam. During the investigation, it was revealed that ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) Chief Mukesh Gupta and SP Rajneesh Singh had forged documents and illegally tapped phones of officials and politicians.
Based on these allegations, the government suspended Mukesh Gupta and Rajneesh Singh and filed FIRs against them. The then Leader of Opposition, Dharamlal Kaushik, went to court against the SIT and obtained a stay order. Mukesh Gupta also succeeded in getting a stay on the proceedings from the Supreme Court. The state government has filed a case against him in the High Court.
After the government change in January 2019, the first case of money laundering was registered in the NAN scam. Later, the Income Tax Department raided the premises of some state government officials, local businessmen, and contractors, seizing a large amount of cash and documents.
Among the seized items was a WhatsApp chat that allegedly recorded conversations between some state government officials and a judicial officer of the High Court regarding the NAN scam. The ED took this chat to the Supreme Court, which made them a party to the case. Subsequently, the ED became an involved party.
