The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja was the “kingpin” of an illegal liquor syndicate in Chhattisgarh along with liquor businessman Anwar Dhebar and the corruption money was also used for electioneering.
The ED said its investigation also revealed that from 2019 to 2022, the sale of “unaccounted illicit” liquor was almost 30-40 per cent of the total liquor sale in the State.
In its application filed in a special court in Raipur on Saturday seeking remand of liquor businessman Anwar Dhebar, the ED said there was a massive liquor trade scam in Chhattisgarh by a syndicate comprising high-level State Government officials, private persons and political executives that generated corruption money of more than Rs 2,000 crore.
Anwar is the elder brother of Congress leader and Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar. Tuteja, a 2003-batch IAS officer, is currently posted as the Joint Secretary in the State’s industry and commerce department. The ED arrested Anwar Dhebar on Saturday. The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court subsequently sent him in four-day custody of the ED.
The agency filed a case last year against Tuteja and others to investigate the matter under the PMLA on the basis of prosecution complaint (chargesheet) filed by the Income Tax Department in a Delhi court against Tuteja and others, it said.
A criminal syndicate was operating in Chhattisgarh which was making illegal bribe collections by controlling the high-level management of key State departments, particularly the excise department (that deals in liquor), and State Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), the ED claimed.
“The syndicate comprised of high-level State Government officials, private persons and political executives of the State Government. Tuteja was managing the affairs and was the kingpin of this illegal syndicate along with Anwar,” it alleged.
“Huge amount of corruption was happening in the excise department and hundreds of crores of cash was being collected from every possible point of access in a distributed hierarchical manner. The syndicate, after keeping its cut, passed on the final loot for the benefit of political executives and for electioneering...,” it said.
Anwar was the main collection agent and front man of this syndicate. There is specific digital evidence depicting delivery of Rs 14.41 crore by Anwar to Tuteja, the ED claimed. The agency's application said the syndicate collected illegal money in three different ways from the sale of liquor in Chhattisgarh.
These included illegal commission charged from liquor suppliers for accounted its sale in State, sale of off-the-record unaccounted country liquor (popular in Chhattisgarh) from State run shops and annual commission paid to allow distillers to operate in State, it said. The excise policy in State was amended in 2017 and Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) was thus created with responsibility to retail liquor in state through its stores.