The Enforcement Directorate (ED) logo.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Raipur: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a woman official of the Chhattisgarh government in the alleged District Mineral Foundation (DMF) scam which came to light during the previous Congress rule in the state.
Maya Warrier, posted in the Tribal and Scheduled Caste Development Department, was arrested on Tuesday and produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court here on Wednesday, ED lawyer Saurabh Pandey told PTI.
It was the first arrest in the DMF case being probed by the ED since last year, he said.
The court granted ED Warrier's custody till October 22, the lawyer added.
"We submitted an application in the court seeking to produce Ranu Sahu (suspended IAS officer who is in judicial custody in an alleged coal scam) on production warrant in the DMF case, but the jail authority communicated that she was having some medical complications," he said.
"We have again sought to produce her in the case on Thursday," advocate Pandey added.
The investigation by the ED suggested that alleged irregularities were committed in the DMF during Ranu Sahu's tenure as collector in Raigarh and Korba districts (during previous Congress government in the state), and she received huge kickbacks from contractors who were allotted work under DMF, he said.
"When Sahu was Collector in coal rich areas, Warrier was posted in related departments there and facilitated irregularities in DMF," he claimed.
The ED in March this year had alleged that mining contractors linked to the DMF in Chhattisgarh paid "huge amounts of illegal gratification" to state officials and political executives for getting official work tenders.
DMF is a trust set up in every district of the state and funded by miners for the benefit of those affected by mining activities.