FIR lodged for stoning ED vehicles after raids at Bhupesh Baghel's house

The Durg Police has filed an FIR into an incident of obstructing and stoning of a vehicle that was part of the Enforcement Directorate team that searched the residence of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel in a case against his son, official sources said.

The complaint has been filed at the 'Old Bhilai' police station in the said district on Monday night by the driver of the private vehicle.

The ED had raided Baghel's residence in Bhilai's Mansarovar Colony and 13 other locations in Durg as part of a money laundering investigation against his son Chaitanya Baghel in an alleged liquor scam case.

The searches went on for about eight hours during which the ED seized about Rs 30 lakh in cash and some documents, according to sources.

The driver said in his complaint to the police that about 15-20 protestors stopped the four-wheeler while it was leaving around 4:30 pm on Monday from Baghel's residence and some people climbed on the bonnet. Some one also hurled a stone that hit the front windshield of the vehicle, the FIR said.

The police has pressed sections related to rioting [191(2)], unlawful assembly (190), voluntary obstructing public servant (221), assault or use of criminal force against a public servant (132) and wrongful restraint [126(2)] of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and section 3 of the Public Property destruction law against a man identified as Bhilai resident Sunny Agarwal and 15-20 others.

The senior Baghel, 63, was present at the house during the action. He later questioned the motive of the ED raids even as the Congress said the raids against the Baghel's were a "conspiracy" to "manage headlines" on a day when Parliament's Budget session reconvened and the government faced questions from the opposition on multiple issues.

Chaitanya Baghel is expected to be summoned for questioning in the case at the ED office in Raipur.

The alleged liquor scam in the central Indian state, as per the ED, was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when Chhattisgarh was ruled by a Congress government led by CM Baghel.

The federal probe agency had earlier said the Chhattisgarh liquor "scam" resulted in "massive loss" to the state exchequer and filled the pockets of the beneficiaries of a liquor syndicate with more than Rs 2,100 crore of proceeds of crime.