ED arrests 2 in 'fake' liquor challan scam in Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has arrested two persons under the anti-money laundering law in connection with an alleged Rs 50 crore worth fake liquor challan scam in Madhya Pradesh.

Ansh Trivedi and Raju Dashwant were taken into custody on October 3 in Indore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A Magistrate Court sent them to ED custody till October 8, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

The two have been identified as the "key conspirators" who devised and executed the "fraudulent" modus operandi enabling liquor contractors to "illicitly" obtain profits while causing significant losses to the state treasury, the ED said.

The agency probe found that a "fraudulent" scheme was undertaken where the accused liquor contractors initially deposited treasury challans with nominal amounts, deliberately leaving the "Rupees in Words" section blank.

"After the deposit, they fraudulently filled in inflated amounts in both figures and words.

"These manipulated challan copies were subsequently submitted to country liquor warehouses or district excise offices (in the case of foreign liquor) as false proof of payment for excise duties, basic license fee or minimum guarantee commitments," it alleged.

On the basis of these forged documents, the accused secured "illegal" NOCs and liquor license approvals, thereby "defrauding" the MP government, it said.

The money laundering probe stems from an FIR of the Indore (Raoji police station) Police against certain liquor contractors for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 49.42 crore to the state exchequer through the manipulation and forgery of government treasury challans. PTI NES DV DV