Supreme Court Upholds Bail for Chaitanya Baghel in Liquor Scam, Cautions Against Routine Challenges

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed separate pleas by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Chhattisgarh government challenging the bail granted to Chaitanya Baghel, son of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, in cases related to an alleged liquor scam.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana flagged the growing practice of routinely challenging bail orders. The court observed that this trend has led to a “significant expansion of bail jurisprudence”, prompting it to examine whether a legally flawed bail order alone justifies cancelling an accused's liberty.

However, the Bench expunged adverse remarks made by the Chhattisgarh High Court against the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the state police while granting bail to Baghel.

The ED and the EOW had filed separate petitions challenging the High Court's bail orders granted on January 2, 2026, in both a money laundering case and a corruption case.

In its bail order, the High Court noted that Baghel's alleged role was “significantly lesser” than that of several senior accused who had already been granted bail by the Supreme Court, including alleged kingpins Anwar Dhebar, Anil Tuteja, Arvind Singh, Arunpati Tripathi, and Trilok Singh Dhillon. The High Court said denying bail to Baghel would violate the principle of parity.

The High Court also observed that the investigation was largely documentary, and Baghel had remained in custody for a considerable period. It stated that the evidentiary value of material collected by the ED—including statements under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and financial records—would be tested during trial, not at the bail stage.

In a separate order granting bail in the ACB/EOW case, the High Court noted that the investigating officer had failed to arrest another accused, Lakshmi Narayan Bansal, despite an open-ended warrant, calling it a “grave violation of law”.

The ED arrested Baghel on July 18 last year in its money laundering probe, while the ACB/EOW arrested him on September 24 in the corruption probe. The alleged liquor scam, according to the ED, was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when the Congress government led by Bhupesh Baghel was in power, causing massive loss to the state exchequer and benefiting a liquor syndicate. The ED claimed Baghel handled nearly ₹1,000 crore from the scam, while the ACB/EOW alleged his share was around ₹200–250 crore, with total proceeds of crime exceeding ₹3,500 crore.