Chhattisgarh: ED arrests Raipur mayor's brother, ITS officer again in liquor case

New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has again arrested Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, and a suspended Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer in connection with its money-laundering probe into an alleged liquor scam in Chhattisgarh that is estimated to have generated more than Rs 2,100 crore of slush funds.

The central agency arrested Anwar Dhebar and bureaucrat Arunpati Tripathi in the case last year. The Supreme Court subsequently quashed the ED's ECIR (FIR) that was based on an income-tax department complaint. The agency later filed a fresh case after it asked the Chhattisgarh EOW/ACB to file a fresh FIR against the accused on the basis of material shared by the anti-money laundering agency.

The two were arrested afresh on Thursday in the same case and a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Raipur sent them to the ED's custody till August 14, the agency said in a statement.

According to the ED, the alleged liquor scam in the central Indian state was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022, when Chhattisgarh was ruled by a Congress government led by Bhupesh Baghel.

"The Chhattisgarh liquor scam resulted in a massive loss to the state exchequer and filled the pockets of the beneficiaries of the liquor syndicate with more than Rs 2,100 crore illegal proceeds of crime," the agency has said.

It has said Anwar Dhebar "was the strongman who ran the liquor syndicate in association with the topmost bureaucrat of the state, IAS officer Anil Tuteja".

"Both of them conceived and planned the entire scam and using the clout of Anil Tuteja, Anwar Dhebar could post officials of his choice in the excise department and thus, became the de-facto excise minister," the ED has claimed.

Tuteja was also arrested by the federal agency in the case early this year.

The ED has alleged that Anwar Dhebar "ran the entire bribe-collection racket" and was responsible for the "unprecedented scam of selling unaccounted illicit liquor from state-run shops".

Every rupee of the proceeds of crime earned through various activities and licences has been acquired from his (Anwar Dhebar's) direct actions, it has said.

Tripathi, it has alleged, told the ED that he played a key role "in enacting the nefarious scheme of sale of unaccounted liquor through CSMCL (the state body for the purchase and sale of liquor) shops".

According to the ED, Tripathi "was the one who arranged meetings with the district excise heads of 15 top revenue-generating districts where country-made liquor was to be sold and gave them detailed instructions related to the enactment of the plan".

"He (Tripathi) was the one who made arrangements with Mr Vidhu Gupta for the supply of duplicate holograms and a fixed amount per case went to Tripathi out of the sale proceeds of the country-made liquor," the agency has said. PTI NES RC