Chhattisgarh: ED busts Rs 2000 crore liquor rip-off, arrest Congress chief’s brother
An alleged ‘scam’ of Rs 2,000 crore in Chhattisgarh, reportedly aided by high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats, has been uncovered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The firm has apprehended a serious suspect, Anwar Dhebar, who has been remanded to ED custody for 4 days by a courtroom in Raipur. Anwar Dhebar is the brother of Congress chief and Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar.
In March 2023, the investigation firm carried out searches at different web sites and obtained statements from quite a lot of folks associated to the rip-off. The firm alleges that it has amassed proof of “unprecedented” corruption and money laundering worth Rs 2,000 crore that occurred from 2019 to 2022. ED says that money was collected on “every bottle” of liquor purchased throughout the state by an alcohol syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar.
On Saturday, Anwar Dhebar was apprehended by the ED on allegations of violating the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was caught by authorities whereas he was making an attempt to flee through the once more entrance of a lodge in Raipur. A specialised PMLA courtroom granted the ED 4-day custody of him, no matter his authorized skilled’s assertion that the arrest was politically motivated. The lawyer has acknowledged that they plan to methodology the Supreme Court in response to the arrest.
The ED talked about, “Investigation found that an organized crime syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar was operating in Chhattisgarh. Anwar Dhebar, though a private citizen, was backed by and was working for the illegal gratification of high-level political executives and senior bureaucrats. He weaved an elaborate conspiracy and stitched a wide network of persons/entities to execute the scam so that money was illegally collected from every bottle of liquor sold in Chhattisgarh.”
According to the ED, Anwar Dhebar was accountable for amassing the whole thing of the illicit funds, nevertheless he was not the one beneficiary of the fraud. As the corporate put it, “It is established that after deducting a percentage, he had passed on the remaining amounts to his political masters.”
The firm talked about, “Excise departments are mandated to regulate the supply of liquor, ensure quality liquor to users to prevent hooch tragedies, and earn revenue for the State. But investigation revealed that the criminal syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar has turned upside down all these objectives.”
In Chhattisgarh, the state has a monopoly on all options of the liquor enterprise, along with procurement and retail product sales, with no room for private avid gamers. The ED talked about, “No private liquor shops are allowed. All 800 liquor shops are run by the state and the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) centrally procures all the liquor.”
The firm extra talked about, “With the support of the political executives, Anwar Dhebar managed to get a pliant Commissioner and MD of CSMCL and hired close associates like Vikas Agarwal alias Subbu and Arvind Singh to make the system completely subservient to him. He controlled the entire chain of the liquor trade starting from private distillers, FL-10A license holders, senior officers of the excise department, district-level excise officers, manpower suppliers, glass bottle makers, hologram makers, cash collection vendors, etc., and leveraged it to extort maximum amount of bribes/commission.”
As per the corporate, the purported liquor syndicate working throughout the state with Anwar Dhebar’s involvement imposed a price of “₹75-150 per case (varying by liquor type) that was meticulously collected from the suppliers for each accounted cash procured by the CSMCL.”
ED talked about that Anwar Dhebar was accountable for the gathering of whole illegal money, nevertheless was not the one beneficiary of the rip-off. “It is established that after deducting a percentage, he had passed on the remaining amounts to his political masters,” they talked about.
The ED claimed, “Anwar Dhebar, in conspiracy with others, started getting manufactured unaccounted country-made liquor and selling the same through government-run shops. This way they could keep the entire sale proceeds without depositing even Re 1 in the state exchequer.”
It extra talked about that between 2019 and 2022, this kind of “illegal sale was almost 30-40 per cent of the total sale of the liquor in the state and this act generated ₹1,200-1,500 crore of illegal profits”. The firm remarked, “This was an annual price that was paid by the precept distillers for getting a distillery license and a set share on the market purchase of the CSMCL. The distillers used to pay bribes as per the proportion of market share allotted to them. Procurement was executed strictly on this ratio by the CSMCL.
