Bhupesh Baghel writes to CJI, seeks probe into functioning of central, state agencies in Chhattisgarh

Raipur: Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has requested the Chief Justice of India to order a high-level judicial probe into the functioning of Central and state probe agencies in the state.

Attempt was being made to falsely implicate him in the alleged scams these agencies were investigating, he claimed in a letter to CJI Dhananjaya Chandrachud, dated September 21.

If the misuse of investigating agencies for `political vendetta' is not stopped, every person in the state will be forced to live in fear, he said.

Conspiracies were afoot to link his name to scams, particularly those related to `coal levy' and Mahadev online betting app, the Congress leader claimed.

The Enforcement Directorate has been probing these two alleged scams that came to light during the previous Baghel-led Congress government. After the BJP was elected to power in the last year's assembly elections, the state Anti Corruption Bureau/ Economic Offence Wing (ACB/EOW) also registered separate cases into the two alleged scams.

Baghel is among 18 persons named as accused in the EOW's FIR.

In his letter, Baghel said during his five years in office, "I completely followed the Constitution and did not hesitate in taking immediate action on any illegal and criminal cases that came to my notice".

"I am aware about your busy schedule.....but I am compelled to write to you personally because of the unconstitutional situations that are constantly being created in Chhattisgarh. A recent incident in Chhattisgarh has become the immediate reason for this letter," he said.

Baghel then wrote about a purported meeting between a senior IPS officer and a businessman named Suryakant Tiwari, one of the main accused in the alleged coal levy scam, on September 8 wherein the former allegedly put pressure on Tiwari to name Baghel as a beneficiary of the alleged scam.

The Congress leader cited a submission made by Tiwari in the district court.

"When I became aware of such conspiracies, I gave statements in public from time to time rejecting the baseless allegations. But the way my name and the names of my colleagues, associates and supporters were dragged into various money laundering cases before the elections held in the state in November last year, it was clear that an agency like ED has been working at someone's behest and is conspiring to defame me and my government to fulfill political objectives during the elections," he said.

Now the state agency ACB/EOW has also become part of the political conspiracy, Baghel alleged.

"The sole purpose of what has happened and is happening is to damage my reputation, subject me to false and malicious prosecution and end my political career through these baseless and illegal allegations," he claimed.

Baghel sought intervention of the CJI to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution in the context of the functioning of Central and state agencies in Chhattisgarh.

He urged the CJI to institute a high-level judicial inquiry into the role and functioning of Central and state agencies in Chhattisgarh.