India, Jan. 13 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached eight immovable properties worth Rs.2.66 crore in connection with the alleged illegal coal levy racket in Chhattisgarh, officials said on Tuesday.

The attached assets, comprising land parcels and residential flats, are linked to former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel's deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia and her associate Nikhil Chandrakar. The agency said the properties were acquired in the names of their relatives using proceeds of crime generated from the illegal collection of coal levy and other extortion activities.

According to the ED, the action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, following investigations initiated on the ba...