A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that a “custom rice milling special incentive scam” in Chhattisgarh had generated ₹175 crore bribes for the “benefit of higher powers”, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel dismissed the allegation. In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Baghel said the ED had released false figures so that the BJP could defame the Congress government of the State.
“The ED has once again given an election issue to the BJP by making fabricated allegations. This time, at the behest of Amit Shah, it is talking about the rice scam,” Mr. Baghel said in his post.
The allegation pertains to a special incentive the State pays to the rice millers for custom milling paddy. This incentive, an ED statement has said, was “exorbitantly” increased from ₹40 to ₹120 per quintal, and then “payments were released worth ₹500 Crore, generating kickbacks of ₹175 Crore”.
