E-Paper
₹776 cr liquor scam money went to ‘political executives’ in Chhattisgarh: ED
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam, alleging that ₹776 crore went to “political executives.”
New Delhi: At least ₹776 crore of the ₹2,161 crore collected in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam by Anwar Dhebar, the prime accused and brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, went to “political executives” and he decided to replicate the same corruption model in Jharkhand as well, but “abruptly” stopped when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) started looking into the irregularities.
The agency made these revelations in its charge sheet filed on Tuesday in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam, naming Anwar Dhebar, Arunpati Tripathi, former managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL), liquor businessman Trilok Singh Dhillon, hotelier Nitesh Purohit and an aide of Anwar Dhebar , Arvind Singh. The accused were arrested in May and June this year.
Revealing how the proceeds of crime, ₹2,161 crore, were utilised, ED charge sheet says the accused persons collected commissions/bribes in four different ways, defined as Part A (bribes collected from distillers per case of liquor procured from them by CSMCL), Part-B (sale of unaccounted country liquor off the books ) and Part-C (bribes taken from distillers to allow them to form a cartel and have fixed market share). A fourth method used to collect bribes was from FL-10A (foreign liquor) licence holders.
While ₹496 crore was collected in Part-A, ₹1173 crore was collected in Part-B, ₹280 in Part-C, and ₹211 from FL-10A holders.
“The Part-A and Part-C commissions were entirely handled by Anwar Dhebar who transferred the entire collection to the political executives of the state (Chhattisgarh). Thus, an amount of (over) ₹776 crore in the form of Part-A and Part-C collection went to these political executives through Anwar Dhebar and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja,” the ED charge sheet says. HT has accessed details of the charge sheet.
The agency said Anwar Dhebar has not disclosed names of the beneficiaries of the ₹776 crores. “But many incriminating documents and records have been received from the Income Tax department and investigation to trace these proceeds of crime worth ₹776 crore is going on,” it added.
The agency said that Anwar Dhebar moved ₹80-100 crore in cash to Delhi and Mumbai through hawala and paid “large amounts of cash to the ruling party in the state for electioneering.”
Commenting on Anwar Dhebar’s plans to replicate the same model in Jharkhand, the ED charge sheet reveals that “following the grand success of his conspiracy in Chhattisgarh, he decided to implement the Chhattisgarh model of Part-A and Part-B (collection) in Jharkhand too and successfully ran it for three to four months till it was abruptly ended due to ED action”.
“The distillers, FL-10 (A) licensees , (and) manpower suppliers of Chhattisgarh in their respective statements have admitted to these facts and stated that they were coerced by Anwar Dhebar and his associates to work in Jharkhand also,” ED’s charge sheet claimed.
The anti-money laundering probe agency is already investigating this aspect in coordination with its Ranchi office and has sought details from the Jharkhand excise department.
Citing the statement of Naveen Kedia of Chhattisgarh Distillers Ltd, ED has said that Anwar Dhebar (a private person) “was like an excise minister only”.
It added that instead of stopping such malpractices, the excise department of Chhattisgarh was in fact “actively encouraging” the same.
ED has said that a large part of the proceeds of crime is still to be traced .
Investigations have revealed that large amounts were transferred to the UAE, the Netherlands etc through hawala operators and huge amount of benami assets have been created abroad, the agency said.
“ED will work with foreign investigative agencies to soon identify and get hold of these fugitives,” it added.
