₹776 cr liquor scam money went to ‘political executives’ in Chhattisgarh: ED
In the Chhattisgarh liquor scandal, the Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet stating that 776 crore flowed to "political executives."
New Delhi: Anwar Dhebar, the main suspect and brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, allegedly stole at least Rs. 776 crore ($2,161 crore) from the Chhattisgarh liquor scam and gave it to "political executives." He then decided to use the same corrupt scheme in Jharkhand but "abruptly" stopped when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) began investigating the irregularities.
In its charge sheet submitted on Tuesday in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam, the agency made these revelations and named Anwar Dhebar, Arunpati Tripathi, the former managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL), Trilok Singh Dhillon, a liquor businessman, hotelier Nitesh Purohit, and Arvind Singh, a close associate of Anwar Dhebar. This year in May and June, the accused were taken into custody.
According to the ED charge sheet, which reveals how the $2,161 crore in proceeds of crime were spent, the accused individuals collected commissions/bribes in four different ways, which are categorized as Part A (bribes collected from distillers per case of liquor purchased from them by CSMCL), Part-B (sale of unaccounted country liquor off the books), and Part-C (bribes taken from distillers to enable them to form a cartel and have fixed market prices).In order to get bribes, licensees of FL-10A (foreign liquor) were a fourth way.
While 496 crore was received in Part-A, 1173 crore, 280 crore, and 211 crore from FL-10A holders were collected.
"Anwar Dhebar handled the Part-A and Part-C commissions in full, transferring the whole collection to the state's (Chhattisgarh) political administration. Thus, through Anwar Dhebar and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja, (over) 776 crore in Part-A and Part-C collection was paid to these political executives, according to the ED charge sheet. The charging sheet's specifics have been seen by HT.
Anwar Dhebar, according to the agency, has not released the identities of the recipients of the 776 crores. But the Income Tax Department and inquiry to find these funds have acquired a lot of damning data and papers of crime worth ₹776 crore is going on,” it added.
According to the agency, Anwar Dhebar used hawala to shift between 80 and 100 crore rupees to Delhi and Mumbai and provided "significant sums of cash to the ruling party in the state for electioneering."
According to the ED charge sheet, which addresses Anwar Dhebar's intentions to use the same strategy in Jharkhand, "following the great success of his conspiracy in Chhattisgarh, he decided to implement the Chhattisgarh model of Part-A and Part-B (collection) in Jharkhand as well and successfully ran it for three to four months until it was abruptly ended due to ED action."
The distillers, FL-10 (A) licensees, and manpower suppliers of Chhattisgarh have agreed to these facts and said that Anwar Dhebar and his friends forced them to supply labor work in Jharkhand as well," the charge document from ED stated.
The anti-money laundering investigation agency is already looking into this issue in collaboration with its Ranchi branch and has asked the Jharkhand excise department for more information.
Anwar Dhebar, a private individual, "was like an excise minister only," according to the ED, who cited Naveen Kedia of Chhattisgarh Distillers Ltd.
The excise department of Chhattisgarh was "actively encouraging" the same methods, it was stated, rather than putting a stop to them.
According to ED, a sizable portion of the proceeds of crime are still untraceable.
According to investigations, significant sums were moved through hawala operators to the UAE, the Netherlands, and other countries, and a sizable number of benami assets were formed overseas, the agency claimed.
"ED will cooperate with overseas sleuthing organizations to quickly locate and apprehend these fugitives," it continued.
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