Six Key Accused in Chhattisgarh Coal Scam, Including Suspended IAS Officers, Released from Jail on Interim Bail
Raipur
In a significant development in the ₹570-crore Chhattisgarh coal levy scam, six key accused — including suspended IAS officers Ranu Sahu and Sameer Vishnoi, former deputy secretary to the chief minister Saumya Chaurasia, coal trader Suryakant Tiwari, and others — were released from jail on interim bail Saturday morning.
The Supreme Court had earlier granted interim bail to Ranu Sahu, Saumya Chaurasia, and alleged kingpin Suryakant Tiwari. Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta heard the bail plea and imposed strict conditions on their release, prohibiting all the accused from residing in Chhattisgarh to avoid influencing witnesses.
As per court directives, the accused must leave Chhattisgarh immediately, submit their passports, provide their new residential addresses to the concerned police stations within one week, and cooperate with the investigating agencies and appear before them or the trial court as required.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had alleged a major coal levy scam in Chhattisgarh, wherein an illegal recovery of over ₹570 crore was made by manipulating coal transport permits — including converting online permits to offline. The ED claimed that the then Director of Mines, IAS Sameer Vishnoi, had issued an order on July 15, 2020, enabling this manipulation.
The ED uncovered that a syndicate had been created to extort money from coal transporters and traders. Those who paid ₹25 per tonne in bribes to associates of trader Suryakant Tiwari were allegedly issued necessary transport permits by the Mining Department. Tiwari is believed to be the mastermind behind the scam.
Besides Ranu Sahu, Vishnoi, and Chaurasia, several others were jailed in connection with the scam, including Sandeep Nayak, Rajnikant Tiwari, Veerendra Jaiswal, Laxmikant, Shiv Shankar Nag, Moinuddin Qureshi, Roshan Singh, Nikhil Chandrakar, Paresh Kurre, Rahul Kumar, Hemant Jaiswal, and Chandra Prakash Jaiswal.
An FIR has been filed against 36 individuals, including two former ministers and sitting MLAs, based on the ED’s findings. The ACB and EOW have intensified the probe accordingly.
The Enforcement Directorate has attached over ₹300 crore in assets linked to the accused so far. Recently, movable and immovable properties worth ₹49.73 crore — including cash, gold, vehicles, bank balances, and land — were seized. These properties belong to Suryakant Tiwari and other co-accused.
According to the ED, several of the accused colluded with political leaders and senior state officials from the previous government to extort money from coal transporters under the guise of illegal levies.
