Raipur, July 20 -- Chaitanya Baghel, son of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with what the agency has described as one of the country's largest liquor scams, NDTV reported.

The arrest has jolted the state's political landscape, with the ED alleging that between 2019 and 2023, the state's liquor trade functioned as a full-fledged extortion racket - sanctioned by policy, sustained by bureaucratic complicity, and steered by political clout.

At the core of the scam, the ED alleges, was Chaitanya Baghel himself - accused of funnelling unaccounted liquor profits into a real estate venture named Vitthal Green, turning it into a front for money laundering.

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