Mahadev betting app: ED chargesheet names former CM Bhupesh Baghel

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 6

A fresh political controversy broke out in Chhattisgarh on Saturday with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) naming former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in its supplementary chargesheet filed in the Mahadev online betting app case recently.

Baghel hit back today alleging that the ED had mentioned his name in its supplementary chargesheet under a “conspiracy” at the behest of its “political masters”. The former CM accused the ED of fraudulently arresting people and pressuring them to give statements against him and his associates.

In its second prosecution complaint (a chargesheet) filed before a special court in Raipur on January 1, the ED said alleged courier Asim Das, arrested in the Mahadev betting app case, who claimed he had been sent to “deliver cash to Baghel”, has retracted his denial of having made the charges.

“The way the ED has mentioned my name in its supplementary chargesheet is part of a political conspiracy. The ED, at the behest of its political masters, has been fraudulently arresting people and pressuring them to give statements against me and my associates. The allegations of money transactions made in these statements are baseless.

“Asim Das, from whom the money was recovered, had said in his handwritten statement from jail that he too had been deceived and implicated, and that he never delivered money to any politician or people associated with them. Now, the ED has claimed that he has withdrawn his statement. Everyone knows under which pressure all this has been happening,” Baghel posted on X.

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