In a major development in the Mahadev betting app probe, one of the key witnesses against Bhupesh Baghel has given a clean chit to the Chhattisgarh chief minister.
Asim Das, a driver arrested in the case, retracted his statement against Baghel in a letter to the PMLA court in Raipur. He said he is being made a scapegoat and was coerced into signing a letter falsely implicating the chief minister.
“I have now realised that I am being made a scapegoat… I want to make it clear that I have never given any money or any kind of support to Baghel, any Verma or any other Congress party leader or worker,” Das said in his letter to the special court.
He said he was instructed by another accused, Shubham Soni, to pick up a car and deliver it to a hotel in Raipur. It was only later that he found cash in the vehicle, he added.
Confirming the development, an ED official said Das wrote to the Raipur court via the jail superintendent since he is in judicial custody. “This will not have any bearing on the ED investigation. The letter is the property of the court, it is for the court to decide,” the officer told News18.
On November 3, four days before the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly elections, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Das and a constable, identified as Bhim Singh Yadav (41), and allegedly seized Rs 5.39 crore in cash from their car.
According to the central agency, Das said he was instructed by Soni to come to Raipur to “deliver the money to politicians of the Congress party for election funding”.
The ED told the court that Das told them that the money was to be delivered to ruling political executives and named Baghel as the intended final recipient. “We have filed an application along with the letter written by Asim Das from jail narrating how he was trapped and falsely accused in the matter. We didn’t know what’s going on and came to know about the allegations like him being a courier boy from the news reports and, hence, it became necessary to put forward our side,” said advocate Shoaib Alvi, who is representing Das.
The Congress has hit back at the ED after Das’s retraction. Youth Congress leader Srinivas BV said the alleged confession of Das was in English on which he was forced to sign.
“Before voting took place in Chhattisgarh, BJP-ED made allegations against the government and CM Baghel in the name of Mahadev app. When the matter reached the court, the truth came out as the accused has written a letter saying the ED forced him to sign on an English letter and made him lie,” Srinivas alleged in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
In his interview to CNN-News18, Baghel had dismissed all the allegations and said such lies will be peddled till November 17 (the second phase of voting) and the truth will later emerge.
Chhattisgarh will find out on December 3 if the Mahadev app controversy and the allegations against Baghel had any bearing in the mind of the voters.
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