Chhattisgarh liquor scam: ED attaches assets of IAS officer Tuteja, others

ED attached the properties of Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur mayor Anwar Dhebar, IAS officer Anil Tuteja and former MD of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Ltd, Arun Pati Tripathi

The Enforcement Directorate ( ED) has attached assets worth more than ₹121 crore of Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur mayor Anwar Dhebar, IAS officer Anil Tuteja and former managing director (MD) of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Ltd, Arun Pati Tripathi, a statement issued by the agency said on Monday.

ED said it has attached assets worth more than ₹121 crore. (Representative Image)

The properties, provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), include 14 properties of Tuteja worth Rs. 8.83 crore, 69 properties of Anwar Dhebar worth ₹98.78 crore and one asset of Tripathi worth ₹1.35 crore, the statement said.

Hotel Vennington Court of Anwar Dhebar in state capital Raipur, being run under the aegis of his firm A Dhebar Buildcon, has also been attached, it said.

Properties of Vikash Agarwal alias Subbu worth ₹1.54 crore and 32 properties of Arvind Singh worth ₹11.35 crore have also been attached as part of the same order. The total value of the attached properties is ₹121.87 crore.

The ED had earlier claimed that a syndicate comprising high-level state government officials, private persons and political executives of the state government were involved in a liquor scam of more than ₹2,000 crore in Chhattisgarh in the last four years.

The ED in its remand application for Anwar Dhebar, who was arrested and produced before court on Saturday, also claimed that IAS officer Anil Tuteja, who is a joint secretary in the Department of Industry and Commerce, was the kingpin of this illegal syndicate along with Anwar Dhebar.

The ED in the remand application stated the sale of unaccounted illicit liquor was almost 30-40% of the total sale of liquor in the state.