The Enforcement Directorate's Raipur office has arrested Chetan Borghariya, who once served as Officer on Special Duty in the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister's Office and now holds the post of Additional Collector in Balrampur-Ramanujganj. The agency's statement, issued Monday, says the arrest happened on September 11 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The case traces back to alleged manipulation in the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission's State Service Examinations of 2020 and 2021, a scandal that has been working its way through investigative agencies for a while now. What started as an FIR from the state's Economic Offences Wing and Anti-Corruption Bureau eventually pulled in the CBI, which registered its own case against then CGPSC chairman Taman Singh Sonwani and others, and has since filed charge sheets.

According to the ED's findings, three men, Utkarsh Chandrakar, Anil Chandrakar and Vikash Chandrakar, allegedly pocketed gratification of more than Rs 3 crore from aspirants sitting the 2021 exam. The pitch, per the agency, was access. Question papers in advance, selection guaranteed, all supposedly arranged through pull in the Chief Minister's Office. Borghariya's name and his official position, the ED says, were invoked as part of that assurance.

The alleged mechanics of the leak

Investigators say leaked question papers reached select candidates before the exam. The ED's account describes candidates assembling at Siddhi Vinayak Marriage Palace in Raipur ahead of the preliminary exam, where the papers were allegedly handed over. Later, the same group was reportedly put up at Barnawapara Sanctuary Resort for what the agency calls coaching built around leaked Mains papers.

On the money trail, the ED says its financial probe found cash deposits totalling Rs 66.64 lakh across 170 transactions in Borghariya's bank account during the relevant period, alongside repeated transfers between him and Utkarsh Chandrakar. A search of his premises on September 1 turned up digital devices, including phones, that investigators say were forensically examined. That analysis, the agency claims, surfaced conversations with Utkarsh Chandrakar about money and repayment.

The ED has also flagged transactions routed through an entity called M/s Figurecave E-Com (OPC) Private Limited, which it suspects was used to layer and move funds. Taken together, the agency says digital records, banking data and statements recorded under PMLA point to Borghariya's involvement in handling proceeds of crime.

He was arrested under Section 19 of the PMLA and produced before the Special Court (PMLA) in Raipur, which has sent him to six days of ED custody. What happens over those six days, and whether the custodial questioning widens the net beyond the names already named, is the next thing to watch here.