The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth ₹61.20 crore belonging to Chaitanya Baghel, son of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, in connection with the state’s ongoing liquor scam probe.
According to ED officials, the attached properties include 364 residential plots and agricultural lands valued at ₹59.96 crore, along with movable assets, bank deposits, and fixed deposits worth ₹1.24 crore. With this, the total value of assets attached in the case has reached ₹276 crore.
Advocate Saurabh Pandey, representing the ED, said the attachment is provisional. “The Adjudicating Authority will now hear arguments from both sides and issue a notice to Chaitanya Baghel. If the authority confirms the ED’s claims, the attachment will be made final, though the accused retains the right to appeal,” he explained.
Chaitanya Baghel, who has already been arrested in the case, remains in judicial custody.
Investigators have described the Chhattisgarh liquor scam as one of India’s biggest state-run liquor rackets, involving “cash, commission, and corruption.” Between 2019 and 2023, the ED alleges, the state’s liquor monopoly was converted into a parallel economy through extortion, bribes, and fake licenses.
At the center of the alleged operation is Chaitanya Baghel, accused of laundering illicit funds through real estate and shell companies. The agency claims his firm, Vitthal Green, received ₹5 crore from Saheli Jewellers—a shell entity already under probe. The transaction was shown as a loan, but no interest was paid and most of the amount remained unpaid, which the ED says indicates money laundering.
The probe further claims that in a single day in 2020, 19 flats were purchased under Baghel-linked entities, with several buyers linked to liquor trader Trilok Singh Dhillon.
According to the ED, the scam had three layers: distilleries paying commissions per liquor case, a parallel black-market network moving hundreds of trucks of illegal liquor, and a manipulated licensing system for premium imported liquor. Together, these generated over ₹1,392 crore in illegal proceeds between 2019 and 2022, allegedly routed to politically connected entities.
While the ED terms the case a “hijack of governance,” the Congress party has dismissed the agency’s actions as politically motivated. “This is a malicious action. Even ancestral properties are being targeted. The people of Chhattisgarh will not forgive this misuse of agencies,” said Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla.
