RAIPUR: On a quiet Monday morning in Chhattisgarh, officials fanned out across Raipur and Mahasamund, knocking on gates and unsealing files tied to a highway project that has come to symbolize the tensions between rapid infrastructure expansion and the murky mechanics of land compensation.
Searches Across Raipur and Mahasamund
Early Monday morning, teams from the Enforcement Directorate fanned out across multiple locations in Raipur and Mahasamund, executing coordinated searches tied to a widening investigation into land acquisition payments for the Raipur–Visakhapatnam economic corridor. Officials said nine premises were covered as part of the operation.
The searches, according to the agency, are focused on properties linked to land broker Harmit Singh Khanuja, his alleged associates, certain government officials, and landowners who received compensation for land acquired along the corridor. Investigators suspect manipulation in land valuation and in the disbursal of compensation—processes that determine payouts for property acquired for national highway projects.
A Corridor at the Center of Allegations
The Raipur–Visakhapatnam corridor forms part of the Centre’s flagship Bharatmala Pariyojana, an ambitious effort to build more than 26,000 kilometers of economic corridors to ease freight movement across India. In Chhattisgarh, however, land acquisition for the Raipur stretch has long been contentious.
Over the past several years, landowners, activists and political groups have filed complaints alleging undervaluation of some parcels, inflated compensation for others, forged records and selective payouts. These grievances have lingered even as construction advanced, turning what is designed as an infrastructure spine into a persistent source of dispute.
The Money Trail and the Numbers in Dispute
The current federal probe draws from findings earlier shared by the state’s Economic Offences Wing. That agency has alleged that at least ₹32 crore was siphoned off through inflated compensation, forged documentation and collusion between private facilitators and government officials.
Opposition leaders have challenged that figure, arguing the scale of irregularities is far larger. The Congress party has pegged the alleged scam at ₹350 crore or more, a claim that has intensified political pressure but remains contested. ED officials have said their immediate task is to follow the money trail, identify beneficiaries and secure documentary and digital evidence linked to compensation approvals.
Political Reverberations and the Road Ahead
The raids have injected fresh political heat into Chhattisgarh, where the BJP-led government and the Congress have exchanged accusations over corruption tied to land acquisition and centrally funded infrastructure projects. Each side has framed the investigation as validation of its own claims, underscoring how closely the issue has become entwined with state politics.
For investigators, officials said, the focus remains narrower: mapping financial flows, verifying records and establishing whether compensation mechanisms were systematically abused. Details of any seizures or recoveries, the agency added, are expected only after the search operation concludes
