Supreme Court refuses to cancel Chaitanya Baghel's bail in liquor scam cases

The ED and the EOW of the state police had filed separate pleas challenging the high court order that granted Baghel bail in the main case and in a related money laundering matter.

In Short

• Supreme court rejected ED and state challenges to the bail order
• Deleted high court observations criticising Economic Offences Wing probe
• Chaitanya Baghel faces allegations of corruption and money laundering

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed separate pleas by the Enforcement Directorate and the Chhattisgarh government against the bail granted to Chaitanya Baghel, son of former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, in cases linked to the alleged liquor scam.

At the same time, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana removed adverse remarks made by the Chhattisgarh High Court against the Economic Offences Wing probe while granting bail to Baghel.

The ED and the EOW of the state police had filed separate pleas challenging the high court order that granted Baghel bail in the main case and in a related money laundering matter.

The state government told the court that Chaitanya Baghel was among the prime accused and one of the masterminds in the case. His counsel, however, said the high court had delivered a well-considered judgment and pointed out that the probe had been going on for the last two years.

On January 2, the high court granted Baghel bail in two cases linked to the alleged liquor scam. A single bench of Justice Arvind Kumar Verma allowed his bail pleas in a case lodged by the ED and another by the Chhattisgarh Anti-Corruption Bureau and EOW.

In its order on the bail plea in the ED case, the high court said the applicant's alleged role was "significantly lesser" than that of several senior accused who had already been granted bail.

It noted that the alleged kingpins and principal beneficiaries, Anwar Dhebar, Anil Tuteja, Arvind Singh, Arunpati Tripathi and Trilok Singh Dhillon, had already been granted bail by the Supreme Court, and said denying bail to Baghel would violate the well-established principle of parity.

The high court also observed that the investigation was largely documentary in nature and that Baghel had remained in custody for a considerable period.

It said the evidentiary value of the material collected by the ED, including statements under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and financial and digital records, would be tested during trial and not conclusively assessed at the bail stage.

In a separate order granting bail in the ACB and EOW case, the high court said it was a "grave violation of law" that the investigating officer failed to arrest Lakshmi Narayan Bansal, an accused in the case, despite a permanent or open-ended warrant issued by the special court.

The ED had arrested Chaitanya Baghel on July 18 last year in its money laundering probe in the alleged scam. The ACB and EOW later arrested him on September 24 while he was in jail in connection with the corruption case.

With Wednesday's order, the Supreme Court has let the bail granted by the high court stand, while removing the remarks against the EOW probe.

- Ends