ED files prosecution complaint against former chairman, 6 others in CGPSC case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday filed a prosecution complaint against seven persons, including former Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) chairman Taman Singh Sonwani, in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations conducted during the previous Congress government.

The 99-page prosecution complaint, along with documents running into around 3,700 pages, was filed before the Special PMLA Court in Raipur, ED counsel Sourabh Kumar Pande said.

Besides Sonwani, the complaint names businessman Shravan Goyal, then CGPSC Deputy Controller (Examination) Lalit Ganvir, Utkarsh Chandrakar, nephew of K K Chandravanshi, a former personal assistant to former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Vikas Chandrakar, Anil Chandrakar and Chetan Borghariya, a state services officer who was posted as an officer on special duty (OSD) in the office of former chief minister Baghel.

Borghariya is the seventh accused named in the prosecution complaint.

This is the first prosecution complaint filed by the federal agency in the case.

According to ED, Goyal allegedly gave the bribe to an NGO, Gramin Vikas Samiti (GVS), associated with Sonwani, as part of an arrangement to facilitate the selection of his son and daughter-in-law in CGPSC examinations.

The agency has also alleged that when the CGPSC recruitment rules were amended in 2021, Ganvir played a role in removing the word “nephew” from the definition of “family”, which allegedly facilitated the selection of relatives of then chairman Sonwani.

Utkarsh and Vikas Chandrakar allegedly arranged preliminary and mains examination papers for candidates and collected money from them, the agency has alleged.

Sonwani was arrested by ED in July this year in the money laundering investigation that stems from an FIR registered by the Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing (EOW), a subsequent complaint filed by the CBI in July 2024 and three chargesheets filed in 2025. The suspects have been accused of involvement in corruption, question paper leaks and manipulation of examinations conducted by the commission in 2020 and 2021 for posts including deputy collectors and deputy superintendents of police.

According to ED, question papers were leaked and the selection process was manipulated in exchange for illegal gratification to facilitate the selection of Sonwani’s relatives and other favoured candidates for senior government posts, including deputy collector and deputy superintendent of police.

Sonwani was also arrested by the CBI in 2024. The CBI case was registered after the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the Congress in the state elections and formed the government in Chhattisgarh in November 2023.