The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided 14 locations in Chhattisgarh, including premises linked to several Congress leaders, days before the party’s plenary session in state capital Raipur.

The ED has not issued any formal statement on the raids, which started in the morning and were continuing at night.

However, unnamed government sources in Delhi said the raids were part of an investigation into a money-laundering case related to an alleged “coal levy scam” involving bureaucrats, politicians and others in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh.

Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel slammed the BJP and said the raids were “an attempt to divert attention”.

“The BJP is frustrated at the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the truth about Adani being exposed,” he said.

ED sources said all the premises raided were linked to Congress legislators and office-bearers close to Baghel. They added that state Congress treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal was being raided too as he had received money at the party office.

According to officials, those raided include Congress MLA Devendra Yadav in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh State Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board chairman Sushil Sunny Agrawal, and state Congress spokesperson R.P. Singh in Raipur.

The ED had earlier alleged “a massive scam in which an illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen”. The proceeds of the crime, the agency had alleged, were being used for “investing in benami assets, bribing officials to influence senior officers and also used by or on behalf of political executives of the state”.