Vikas Agrawal, a key accused in an alleged ₹2,883-crore Chhattisgarh liquor scam who was absconding for the past several years, has been caught in Dubai and may be brought to India very soon, at least three officials told HT.
The alleged irregularities pertain to the illegal sale of unaccounted and duty-evaded liquor through state-run liquor outlets, allegedly under the protection of senior excise and other Chhattisgarh government officials between 2019 and 2023. A liquor syndicate led by businessman Anwar Dhebar and retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja manipulated the state’s excise system to generate illegal proceeds exceeding ₹2,883 crore, according to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya Baghel has already been charged in the case.
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Repatriation from the UAE
“Vikas Agrawal, who is an important link in the Chhattisgarh liquor syndicate’s financial operations, was arrested in Dubai in the third week of October. He is in the custody of the UAE authorities right now. His repatriation has also been almost approved by the UAE authorities and we believe that he would very soon be brought to India after completing all the formalities,” said one of the officials cited above, adding that he was absconding since sometime in 2023.
{{/usCountry}}“Vikas Agrawal, who is an important link in the Chhattisgarh liquor syndicate’s financial operations, was arrested in Dubai in the third week of October. He is in the custody of the UAE authorities right now. His repatriation has also been almost approved by the UAE authorities and we believe that he would very soon be brought to India after completing all the formalities,” said one of the officials cited above, adding that he was absconding since sometime in 2023.
{{/usCountry}}In a statement issued on June 1 this year, while attaching assets worth ₹1,000 crore in the case, ED said that “Vikas Agrawal functioned as the ground-level financial manager of the syndicate, collecting commissions from distilleries and FL-10A (foreign liquor) licensees and routing funds directly to Anwar Dhebar”.
According to ED, the liquor syndicate operated through four channels. Under Part A, commissions were allegedly collected from distilleries by artificially inflating the price of liquor procured by the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited, the state-run liquor procurement and distribution agency. Under Part B, unaccounted country liquor was allegedly manufactured and sold through government liquor shops using duplicate holograms, with the proceeds bypassing the state exchequer. In Part C, annual commissions from distilleries were taken to secure fixed market shares, while the fourth mechanism involved extracting commissions from foreign liquor manufacturers through the FL-10A licensing system.
ED’s probe has revealed that the syndicate’s proceeds of crime were distributed among political executives, bureaucrats and private beneficiaries, a second official said.
So far, 85 people have been named as accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in six charge sheets. Former Chhattisgarh Congress treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal and former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma have also been named in the charge sheets. The agency has also seized or attached assets worth more than ₹600 crore in the case as of now.
ED has been probing the alleged liquor irregularities in Chhattisgarh since 2022 but its previous probe was quashed by the Supreme Court on April 8, 2024 as it was based on an income-tax complaint and didn’t form part of the scheduled offence, a requirement for it to proceed with money laundering probes.
However, a day later, on April 9, 2024, ED filed a fresh case in the matter based on a FIR filed by Chhattisgarh police on January 17, 2024.