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Last updated: 05 July 2023 at 23:41 IST
She added that this syndicate includes senior state bureaucrats, politicians, their aides, and officials in the excise department. (pic/pti file)
She added that they systematically changed the alcohol policy according to their whims and fantasies and extorted maximum personal benefits for themselves.
The Enforcement Department (ED) has alleged that ₹2,161 crore of corruption money was created in the alleged ‘alcohol scam’ that started in 2019 in Chhattisgarh with the syndicate comprising top state bureaucrats, politicians, their associates and tax department officials. In the prosecution’s complaint filed on Tuesday before a special court here in a money laundering case linked to an alleged liquor scam in the state, the central agency said the sum of Rs 2,161 crore should have gone to the state treasury.
It has named Anwar Dhar, brother of Congress leader and Mayor of Raipur, Ejaz Dhibar, Managing Director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Company Limited (CSMCL) Arunpatti Tripathi, liquor businessman Trilok Singh Dhillon, hotelier Nitesh Purohit and Arvind Singh as defendants.
Saurabh Pandey, ED lawyer, said the “prosecution complaint” with reliance on documents, at 13,000 pages long, was filed in court under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The executive in the prosecution’s complaint said that the investigation had established that “unprecedented corruption” had occurred between 2019 and 2023 in the state tax department in multiple ways and that the syndicate involved generated nearly Rs 2,161 crore of corruption money.
The whole amount, she said, is only the right amount which should have gone into the state treasury and should have been taxed and brought revenue to the central and state governments. The main responsibilities of the excise department are to regulate the supply of alcoholic beverages, to ensure the quality of alcoholic beverages for users to prevent tragic tragedies, and to earn revenue for the state. But the crime syndicate led by (recently retired) Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja and Anwar Dibar has turned those goals on their head, she said.
She added that they systematically changed their alcoholic beverage policy according to their whims and fantasies and extorted maximum personal benefits for themselves. She added that this syndicate includes senior state bureaucrats, politicians, their aides, and officials in the excise department.
In February 2019, the union selected Arunpati Tripathi, an officer of the Indian Telecom Service (ITS), to lead the CSMCL (a government body for the purchase and sale of liquor). In May of that year, she said, he was appointed director general of the organization at Debar’s request. Tripathi was given the task of increasing the bribe commission charged on liquors purchased by CSMCL, and arranging for the sale of paid liquors through CSMCL-operated stores.
As part of the plot, MD CSMCL will purchase wines only from preferred manufacturers while lining up the no-commission-paying side. According to statements made to the emergency department, Anwar Dabar used to collect these committees, and a large part of them were shared with the ruling political party. The syndicate conspired to manufacture and sell illegal alcoholic beverages of unknown fate through CSMCL-operated stores. As part of the plot, duplicate holograms were supplied to the distillers by the Syndicate, and duplicate bottles were purchased for cash by the distillers, the ED said. All the security features that were introduced to ensure the supply of genuine liquor was compromised by the excise officials to disguise the sale of this illegal liquor.. She said the entire sale was off the books.
She added that the sale considerations had been fully withdrawn with everyone getting their share, including distiller, conveyor, hologram maker, bottle maker, excise officer, senior levels of excise management, dabar, senior IAS officers and politicians. After paying the distillers (about 560-600 rupees per case) and the local excise officers (about 150 rupees per case), Debar took the maximum amount left and after deducting the share of 15 per cent allotted to himself and Tuteja, he used to supply and added the rest to the politicians as directed by the senior State political executives.
In response to the prosecution’s complaint, Faysal Rizvi, attorney for Dhbar and Dillon, said that his clients were falsely implicated in the case.
(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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