Chhattisgarh liquor ‘scam’: ED arrests former IAS officer

THE ED Sunday arrested retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja, 61, in connection with a second Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), accusing him to be the Chhattisgarh liquor scam “architect”. Tuteja was produced before a court in Raipur and was remanded in 1-day judicial custody although the ED prayed for 14 days custody before the magistrate. He will be produced before a special PMLA court in Raipur again on Monday.

According to the ED, the scam has cost the state exchequer Rs 2,161 crore, which has been pocketed by the accused including politicians.

Based on an FIR in January 17 this year by Chhattisgarh’s Economic Offences Wing and Anti-corruption Bureau, a second ECIR was registered by ED on April 11 this year, three days after the Supreme Court on April 8 quashed their first ECIR in the same scam. An FIR was registered on a complaint by the ED, naming 70 accused, including former excise minister and MLA Kawasi Lakhma and Anwar Dhebar, brother of Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar of the Congress.

As per ED’S prosecution complaint filed in Raipur’s special PMLA court in the scam in July 2023, the alleged corruption began in 2019 and continued till 2022 in the Excise department and the syndicate was led by Dhebar and a retired IAS officer, who was not named as accused in the complaint. The duo systematically altered liquor policy as per their whims and extorted personal benefit for themselves, the complaint stated.

Tuteja’s lawyer Syed Zeeshan said, “We challenged the remand application on numerous grounds, primarily stating that the arrest is illegal and made even when the earlier ECIR was already quashed by the SC.”

Explaining the difference between the two ECIRS, ED’S Special Public Prosecutor, Dr Saurabh Kumar Pande told The Indian Express, “The PMLA investigation is always based upon a scheduled offence. The first ECIR was based on a criminal complaint filed by the Income Tax department before Tees Hazari Court New Delhi. The Scheduled offence was under section 120B of the IPC which was quashed by the SC because based on Pawana Dibbur’s judgment of Supreme Court as 120B of IPC cannot be a single Scheduled Offence as it must be connected with another Scheduled Offence.”

Pandey said: “The PMLA investigation in the first ECIR was based only on that. The SC judgment had never expressed any observation on the aspect that the liquor scam never occurred...”