On 4th July, Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted its charge sheet in the liquor scam by Anwar Dhebar, the prime accused and brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar. As per the charge sheet, at least Rs 776 crore out of Rs 2,161 crore collected in the scam went to “political executives”.
There were plans to replicate the scam in Jharkhand, but the ED busted his operations. Apart from Dhebar, ED has named Trilok Singh Dhillon, who is the former MD of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) and a well-known liquor businessman, hotelier Nitesh Purohit and an aide of Dhebar named Arvind Singh. They were arrested between May and June 2023.
ED noted how money was collected through commissions and bribes in four different ways. Part-A was bribes collected from distillers. The payment was made on per case basis and procured by CSMCL. Around Rs 496 crore were collected.
Part B was the sale of unaccounted country liquor. Around Rs 1,173 crore were collected. Part C was bribes taken from distillers to allow them to form their own cartel and have a fixed market share. Around Rs 280 crore was collected. Part D was bribes collected from FL-10A or foreign liquor license holders, and Rs 211 crore was collected from them.
ED said, “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 agency added Dhebar has not disclosed the names of the beneficiaries who received money out of this Rs 776 crore. It added, “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.” Furthermore, it was found that Dhebar moved between 80 crore to 100 crore in cash to Mumbai and Delhi through Hawala. “Large amounts of cash were paid to the ruling party in the state for electioneering,” ED added.
Speaking on Dhebar’s plans to replicate the same model in Jharkhand, ED said, “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 agency added, “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.”
The anti-money laundering probe agency is coordinating with the Ranchi office to investigate the matter. Information has been sought from the Jharkhand excise department as well. ED noted that the way Dhebar formulated the scam while citing the statement of Naveen Kedia of Chhattisgarh Distillers Ltd, it was like he worked as “an excise minister only”.
The investigation into the matter will take time, as ED said that a large part of the money trail is yet to be traced. Large amounts were also transferred outside India to countries like the Netherlands and UAE via hawala operators. The agency further said that several benami assets had been created using the money from the scam. It added, “ED will work with foreign investigative agencies to soon identify and get hold of these fugitives.”
Chhattisgarh Liquor Scam
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its prosecution complaint filed in the special PMLA court, has alleged that a whopping Rs 2,161 crore was generated in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam.
It alleged that the nexus in the scam comprised senior government officials, politicians, and other individuals. The scam has caused a loss of a staggering Rs 2,161 crore to the exchequer, ED stated in court.
ED has named Anwar Dhebar (51), brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar of the Congress, Arunpati Tripathi (55), an Indian Telecom Services official, businessman Trilok Dhillon (59), and their aides Nitesh Purohit (51) and Arvind Singh (48).
Anwar Dhebar was apprehended by the ED in May and remanded to four-day custody. Following his arrest, ED attached 119 immovable properties worth Rs 121.87 crore in the case. ED has also attached assets of Anil Tuteja and Arunpati Tripathi in May. Fourteen properties of Tuteja worth over 8.83 crores and Dhebar’s Raipur hotel Vennington Court were also attached.
ED found that between 2019 and 2022, unaccounted illicit liquor worth 30-40% of the overall liquor sales in the state was sold at the behest of the syndicate.
While NAN scam-accused IAS officer Anil Tuteja managed the money collected in the scam, Anwar Dhebar, brother of Raipur’s Mayor Aijaz Dhebar, was the kingpin of the syndicate and after the deduction of a specific percentage, all the money went to Anwar.
ED pointed out that they collected hundreds of crores in cash from “every possible point of access in a distributed hierarchical manner.” The actors involved in the scam would keep a small percentage of the collection and transfer the remaining funds to Dhebar.
ED said, “It was found that the corruption was systematic and so deep-rooted with multiple associates in different State Departments, that the accused persons and syndicate was forced to maintain detailed logs and accounts of the collected money lest there may be pilferage from the crime money itself.”
Following the revelations made by the ED, PM Modi hit out at the Congress govt in the state. He said, “One of the 36 promises made in Congress’s manifesto was liquor ban in the state. Five years on, the Congress government has committed thousands of crores of liquor scams. Newspapers are filled with reports on the same.”
