The Enforcement Directorate has intensified its legal proceedings in connection with the alleged misuse of District Mineral Foundation funds in Chhattisgarh, ordering the provisional attachment of assets valued at Rs 31.70 crore. Alongside the asset attachment, the central investigative agency has submitted a supplementary prosecution complaint naming 17 individuals before a special court in Raipur. The investigation centres on alleged misappropriation of mineral development welfare allocations, inflated project estimates, and systemic bribery during the tenure of the previous Bhupesh Baghel government.
Attachment Order and Special Court Filings
The Raipur zonal unit of the Enforcement Directorate issued the provisional attachment order on 29 October under the statutory provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Following this administrative action, the supplementary complaint was officially submitted before the special court in Raipur on 30 October. Among the 17 individuals arraigned in this supplementary submission are Satpal Singh Chhabra and Mandeep Chawla.
Contract Allocations and Commission Mechanism
Investigative findings outline that an organised network comprising government officials, middlemen, and commercial facilitators actively manipulated the allocation and disbursement of District Mineral Foundation resources. According to the inquiry, the expenditure estimates for state-funded tasks were systematically marked up, and supply assignments were channelled exclusively to chosen vendors and business entities.
The agency claims that kickbacks ranging between 25 percent and 50 percent of the total value of purchase orders awarded to rate-contract firms were extracted as illicit payments. These funds were gathered through both physical cash handovers and formal banking transactions. To disguise the criminal origin of the illicit earnings, the financial sums were layered across a complex web of bank accounts and corporate entities.
Financial Syndicate, Key Arrests, and Cumulative Attachments
Within this financial network, Satpal Singh Chhabra was identified as the key contact point and financial coordinator responsible for orchestrating funds. Authorities placed him under arrest on 1 September. To date, four people have been apprehended in connection with the wider probe, including Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer Ranu Sahu.
The Enforcement Directorate has calculated the overall proceeds of crime generated from the illicit operation at roughly Rs 35 crore. Meanwhile, the cumulative value of assets provisionally restrained throughout the ongoing investigation has climbed to around Rs 50 crore. The investigation further revealed that similar irregular commission structures had expanded beyond the mineral foundation into procurement activities handled by the state seeds corporation.
