RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday said that claims by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that it has unearthed a liquor scam in the state were “completely false, baseless and condemnable” and that ED, a federal agency, acted on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The aim of ED is to ensure the BJP benefits in elections. But, no matter how many conspiracies are hatched by the central agency, the BJP will not succeed. The Congress government will expose every conspiracy of BJP leaders and the ED,” the chief minister said.
In a two-page statement released on Sunday, ED claimed to have collected “evidence of unprecedented corruption and money laundering to the tune of ₹2,000 crore between 2019 and 2022”. The federal agency also said an “organised criminal syndicate” led by Anwar Dhebar, brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, was operating in Chhattisgarh and that the syndicate “was backed by and was working for illegal gratification of the high-level political executives and senior bureaucrats”.
The agency claimed that Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja, who is serving as joint secretary in the state’s commerce and industries department, and Anwar Dhebar were the kingpin of the syndicate.
{{/usCountry}}The agency claimed that Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja, who is serving as joint secretary in the state’s commerce and industries department, and Anwar Dhebar were the kingpin of the syndicate.
{{/usCountry}}Baghel told reporters in Raipur that statistics of revenue over the last several years showed that this revenue increased after the Congress came to power. “The data shows a significant rise in revenue collected from liquor sales under the current Congress government as compared to the previous BJP regime. It was the Raman Singh-led BJP government’s decision to sell liquor through a corporation in 2017 in the state. No change was made in distilleries, officers, transporters and placement agencies linked to the liquor trade in the state since 2017. The revenue collection from liquor increased from ₹3,900 crore in 2017-18 to ₹6,000 crore in 2022-23 which clearly shows that the ED’s claim of decline in revenue collection due to alleged corruption is baseless,” Baghel said.
The chief minister added that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) conducted audits of the state’s excise department and gave it a clean chit. But since the opposition BJP wasn’t able to find any issue to attack the Congress government, it was using ED in an attempt to defame the government, Baghel added.
“In February 2020, the Income Tax department from Delhi carried out searches against those linked to the excise (liquor trade) in the state. But it is a matter of shame that the agency could not even reveal how much movable or immovable assets were recovered from whom. Again, in March this year, ED conducted raids which also turned out to be a failure as the anti-money laundering agency did not issue any press note about recovery made during the searches,” Baghel said.