Raipur: This week, a major blow came in for Soumya Chaurasia, incarcerated in the coal scam and money laundering case, as the High Court rejected her application seeking interim bail. The court has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to reply to this plea for bail to be granted to her. From the facts presented in this case, Soumya Chaurasia, who seeks bail on the grounds of parenting her children, will have her case heard after June 10.
Soumya Chaurasia was arrested by the ED on 2nd December 2022 in a money laundering case involving a multi-crore scam involving the coal sector in West Bengal during the previous Congress regime. She was arrested and ever since has been detained in Raipur Central Jail. Earlier, she had approached the Supreme Court in the same case for bail, which was dismissed, and additionally, she had to pay a fine of one lakh rupees for submitting fake documents to the court.
In recent times, she filed a bail application in a special ED court where her bail was rejected after that, Chaurasia approached the High Court for relief. She has sought bail on the grounds of ill health with an agreement to cater to the needs of her children. The hearing of her case occurred in the presence of a two-bench presided by one Justice NK Vyas.
As pointed out earlier, the ED searched Chaurasia’s house and claimed that he was instrumental in the involvement of a coal scam for the purpose of money laundering. The scam that came to light in the previous Congress government’s term pertains to the allocation of Coal Blocks in an improper and unlawful manner, followed by other fraudulent undertakings. The ED has alleged that Chaurasia played an active role in the said transactions, holding a key position in managing the money trail of the hawala transactions.
The recent death sentence delivered by the High Court has raised the stakes even further, particularly in Chaurasia’s refusal to grant interim bail. The court has now directed the ED to file a detailed response to the bail application of Chaurasia and thus, they have restricted further judicial process after June 10.
