ED raids in Chhattisgarh: Congress stages protest at central agency's office

A day after the Enforcement Directorate ED conducted raids on premises linked to some Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh a large number of party leaders and workers staged a protest in front of the central agencys office in Raipur and accused it of taking action at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata PartyThe protesters led by Congress MLA Dhanendra Sahu former Rajya Sabha member Chhaya Verma and Raipur district party unit urban president Girish Dubey gathered outside the ED office building in Pachpedi Naka area on Tuesday and staged a sitin protestThey raised slogans against the BJPled Centre and the ED and accused the government of misusing central agencies against political opponentsWhen the protesters tried to get inside the EDs office police stopped them This resulted in a minor scuffle between the protesters and security personnelThe ED on Monday conducted raids at more than a dozen locations in Chhattisgarh including at premises linked to state Congress leaders as part of an ongoing probe into the alleged coal levy scam officials saidThe action comes ahead of the Congress threeday plenary session to be held in Raipur from February 24Hitting out at the BJP Chhaya Verma claimed the saffron party is scared of the Congress and therefore it has resorted to such tactics of misusing central agenciesWe will not be afraid of such things We will fight against it and emerge stronger she addedChief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday called the raids at the premises of Congress leaders a politically motivated move He had claimed the BJP was scared of the Congress and misusing central agencies to crush the voices of political opponentsAlso Read Tamil Nadu government moves Supreme Court against RSS route march in stateBaghel had also claimed the BJPs intention was to impact the Congresss upcoming plenary session in Raipur where a roadmap for the 2024 general elections will be discussedThe ED on Monday conducted searches at more than a dozen locations related to two Congress MLAs Devendra Yadav in Bhilai Durg district and Chandradev Prasad Rai in SarangarhBilaigarh district Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal chairman of Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Girish Dewangan chairman of Chhattisgarh State Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Sushil Sunny Agrawal and partys state spokesperson RP Singh in Raipur according to officialsThe raids also covered premises of some other ruling party leaders including Vinod Tiwari in RaipurThe EDs investigation relates to a massive scam in which an illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats businessmen politicians and middlemen the agency has allegedNine persons including an IAS officer and a state administrative service officer have been arrested by it till now in the caseThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever