Excise officer has asset worth crores, drove Mercedes, Audi: Lokayukta police
Interestingly, the district excise officer, Parakram Singh Chandrawat was arrested not by the Lokayukta police, but by the local Vijaynagar police under the Excise Act for possessing 45 bottles of liquor.
A Lokayukta police raid on a district excise officer of Madhya Pradesh unearthed over ₹1 crore is cash, jewellery worth another ₹1 crore and property running into crores of rupees, while the excise officer’s known source of income comes to ₹60 lakhs, said Lokayukta police.
Interestingly, the district excise officer, Parakram Singh Chandrawat was arrested not by the Lokayukta police, but by the local Vijaynagar police under the Excise Act for possessing 45 bottles of liquor.
The raiding team on Friday found that Chandrawat, who is now posted in Dhar, lived in the lap of luxury in his house in Scheme No 74, an upper class locality, in Indore. He owns two Mercedes cars and an Audi car and has investments in land, shops, petrol pumps, warehouses across the state.
The raid has taken political overtones as Chandrawat is the nephew of former Congress minister late Mahendra Singh Kalukheda, and Congress has dubbed the raid as being political motivated.
Lokayukta Special Police Establishment (SPE) SP Indore, Dilip Soni, said they have booked Chandrawat in a disproportionate assets case. “We are still evaluating the assets seized so far, but it runs into crores. We have information about two lockers and nearly 10 bank accounts whose contents we have to see. Banks are closed today and we will open them on Monday” the SP said.
A joint team of the Indore and Ujjain Lokayukta police teams carried out simultaneous raids in eight places in the Indore and Ujjain division. His two petrol pumps in Indore, six warehouses in Jaora, his office in Dhar, have been sealed.
Chandrawat is the son of late Narendra Singh Chandrawat who was posted as inspector in Mhow, and died in a shootout in 1998 while chasing in criminal. Parakram was given the job as district excise officer on compassionate grounds in November 2001, while his mother was allotted a petrol pump license.
Senior Congress leader Manak Agrawal dubbed the raid as a political vendetta. “They are targeting those who are close to the Congress to malign the party. If the Lokayukta really wants to find disproportionate assets, they should raid ministers of the BJP government.”
Lokayukta DG Anil Kumar said the charge that the raids were politically motivated is baseless. “The Lokayukta in Madhya Pradesh is an independent body headed by a retired high court judge. The decision to raid an individual is taken after proper groundwork and not on a whim.”
The list of assets found so far
Two Mercedes Benz cars
One Audi car
Two petrol pumps in Indore
Six warehouses in Jaora, Ratlam district
House in Vijay Nagar
5500 sq feet commercial plot in Scheme 140
Two shops in BMC Heights and Trade Centre
Cash of ₹1.2 crore and jewellery of over ₹1 crore
House and land in Kalukheda village
Two lockers at HDFC bank
10 bank accounts
Foreign trips without official permission
(As told by Lokayukta officials)