Chhattisgarh ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) and EOW (Economic Offenses Wing) have registered an FIR against 7 people including an IAS officer from Jharkhand in the liquor scam case. They are accused of causing huge loss to the treasury of the neighboring state by changing the liquor policy.
Giving information about this on Friday, an ACB official said that on the complaint of Vikas Kumar, a resident of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, an FIR was registered in Raipur on September 7 under sections 420 (fraud) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. In which the names of an IAS from Jharkhand and a retired IAS officer from Chhattisgarh are also included.
According to the ACB officer, those against whom the case has been registered also include former Jharkhand Excise Secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey and Noida businessman Vidhu Gupta. IAS Vinay Kumar has been the secretary to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Apart from this, other accused also include former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, businessman Anwar Dhebar, former managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Arunpati Tripathi, IAS officers and former Excise Commissioners of Chhattisgarh Niranjan Das and Arvind Singh. All of them are residents of Chhattisgarh.
Apart from this, a case has also been registered against M/s Sumit Facilities director, manpower agencies, liquor supplier agencies and others, the official said. Tuteja, Dhebar, Tripathi, Das and Singh are also accused in the alleged liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, which is being investigated by the ED (Enforcement Directorate) and ACB/EOW of Chhattisgarh.
This scam came to light in Chhattisgarh during the previous Congress government (2018-23). According to the latest FIR, Tuteja, Dhebar, Tripathi and Das formed a syndicate and conspired with Jharkhand officials to amend the excise policy there. He awarded tenders for the supply of Indian and foreign liquor in the neighboring state to members of the syndicate, which resulted in fraud and caused a loss of crores of rupees to the Jharkhand government between 2022 and 2023.
Apart from this, the syndicate is also accused of selling unaccounted domestic liquor with duplicate holograms and illegally supplying foreign liquor to companies close to them. According to the documents, the syndicate received illegal commission worth crores of rupees from such firms.
The FIR states that Tuteja and his syndicate intended to run illegal liquor business in Jharkhand. As part of their plan, Dhebar and Tripathi met the then Jharkhand Excise Secretary and other officials in January 2022. He proposed to replace the existing contract system in Jharkhand with the distribution model of Chhattisgarh, which helped the syndicates earn illegal money.
According to the information received from the document, a meeting was held in Raipur between the officials of the Excise Department of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in this regard and the plan was finalized by hatching a criminal conspiracy on how to earn illegal profits in Jharkhand from the liquor business done in Chhattisgarh. given.
The FIR states that as per the plan, Dhebar, Tripathi, Jharkhand’s then Excise Secretary Choubey, 1999 batch IAS officer and then Joint Excise Commissioner Gajendra Singh prepared to implement the new excise policy in the neighboring state by taking their superiors into confidence. . A resolution was passed for this purpose in the Jharkhand Assembly and Tripathi was contracted as a consultant by the Hemant Soren government. Tripathi prepared a draft of the Indian and Foreign Liquor Sale Policy applicable in Chhattisgarh and presented it before the Jharkhand government.
According to the FIR, new excise rules were notified and implemented in Jharkhand on the basis of this draft presented by Tripathi. For this, Tripathi received and spent Rs 1.25 crore from the Jharkhand government. Under the patronage of Choubey and then Excise Joint Commissioner Singh, officials of the Excise and Prohibition Department of Jharkhand manipulated the tender criteria to allot tenders to the liquor supply and placement agencies of Debar and his syndicate and to grant liquor wholesaler licenses. A condition of having a minimum turnover of Rs 100 crore for two consecutive financial years has been introduced in the mandatory eligibility conditions of IPC, the FIR said.
According to the FIR, new excise rules were notified and implemented in Jharkhand on the basis of the draft. Also, ACB/EOW alleged that Tripathi received Rs 1.25 crore from Jharkhand government for this.
The FIR states that officials of the Excise and Prohibition Department of Jharkhand, under the patronage of Choubey and the then Excise Joint Commissioner Singh, manipulated the terms of the tender to allot the tender to the liquor supply and placement agencies of Dhebar and his syndicate and One of the mandatory eligibility conditions for granting liquor wholesaler license is the condition of having a minimum turnover of Rs 100 crore for two consecutive financial years. It said that due to the contractual system already prevalent in Jharkhand, there was no firm in that state which fulfilled the minimum turnover requirement.
