Mahadev betting app case: "As more evidence is obtained, summons can be issued to former CM Baghel," says ED lawyer
Jan 06, 2024
Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], January 6 : After the ED named former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in the Mahadev App case, Saurabh Pandey, Enforcement Directorate lawyer, said that as more evidence is obtained during the investigation, summons can be issued to Baghel also.
"As evidence is obtained during the investigation, summons can be issued to anyone including the former Chief Minister," he told ANI.
In a significant development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named Baghel in a supplementary chargesheet filed on January 1, 2024.
The chargesheet is related to allegations of receiving bribes amounting to about Rs 508 crore from the promoters of the Mahadev App.
"In the first supplementary prosecution complaint that we have presented, we have written about Shubham Soni and the email that Shubham Soni sent us was a certified email. In that email, he wrote about the former Chief Minister. It was said that Rs 508 crores have been used in the form of documents which we have presented. Aseem Das had earlier said that 5 crores 39 lakhs that he had also given to the CM, that was also in the statement, we made that as a part of our prosecution complaint. Although it is in its place that in the first supplementary PC (prosecution complaint) which has been presented, five people have been named in it. The accused include Aseem Das, Bhim Singh Yadav, Anil Kumar Aggarwal, Rohit Gulati and Shubham Soni," he added.
He further said that the three accused have denied their statements after ED authorities went to jail, saying that it was not their handwriting.
"Some letters related to Mahadev's applications were sent to the court and also to other authorities who are in jail. A letter had come from the three accused in the Mahadev application, Chandra Bhushan Verma and Satish Chandrakar, in which it was said that whatever statements were given to the ED authority under Section 50 of Money Laundering were false. But now when the ED authority went to jail after getting permission from the court, they denied this and said that the letters written were fake and it is not their handwriting and they do not have to believe in it," the ED lawyer told ANI.
"It is necessary for us to show the court what statements we have recorded. We had presented our statement in front of the special court and had also expressed our views there," he asserted.
