Chhattisgarh liquor scam: ED attaches assets worth Rs 205 crore

New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) The ED Friday said it has attached assets worth over Rs 205 crore of retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja, the Raipur mayor's brother and a former excise department special secretary, besides others, in a money-laundering probe linked to an alleged liquor scam in Chhattisgarh.

The attached properties include 14 assets of Tuteja worth Rs 15.82 crore, 115 properties of Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, worth Rs 116.16 crore, properties of Vikash Agarwal alias Subbu worth Rs 1.54 crore and 33 properties of Arvind Singh worth Rs 12.99 crore, it said in a statement.

A property worth Rs 1.35 crore of Arunpati Tripathi, an Indian Telecom Service officer and special secretary of the excise department, nine properties worth Rs 28.13 crore of liquor businessman Trilok Singh Dhillon and jewellery worth Rs 27.96 crore of Naveen Kedia (linked to the Durg-based Chhattisgarh Distillery Limited) were attached as well.

In addition, the ED also attached movable properties worth Rs 1.2 crore of Asheesh Saurabh Kedia/Dishita Ventures Pvt Ltd and a vehicle registered in the name of Nexgen Engitech Power Pvt Ltd.

The attached properties of Anwar Dhebar include Hotel Vennington Court in Raipur which is being run under the aegis of his firm, A Dhebar Buildcon, apart from a commercial building in the name of 'Accord Business Tower', the ED said.

The total value of these assets, 18 movable and 161 immovable, is Rs 205.49 crore.

Tuteja, a 2003-batch IAS officer, was arrested in this case recently by the ED and the agency called him the "kingpin" of the liquor syndicate operating in the state of Chhattisgarh.

The agency claimed in a statement issued earlier that it has gathered evidence stating while Tuteja "was not officially a part of the excise department, yet he was actively involved with operations of this department".

The "complicit" actions of Tuteja 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. Tuteja also received a substantial share in this loot, the ED claimed.

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer retired last year. He was last designated as joint secretary in the industry and commerce department of Chhattisgarh.

The ED filed a fresh money laundering case in the liquor scam case after the Supreme Court recently quashed its earlier FIR that was based on an Income Tax Department complaint. The apex court ruled there was no scheduled offence and hence, the money laundering case did not stand.

The agency, just before this ruling, had shared details of its probe in the case with the Chhattisgarh EOW/ACB, seeking the registration of a criminal case and once they filed a FIR, the ED registered a new money laundering case taking cognisance of that complaint.

The EOW/ACB registered this FIR on January 17, about a month after the BJP defeated the incumbent Congress government in the assembly polls, and named 70 individuals and companies, including former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma, former chief secretary Vivek Dhand and others.

The ED has estimated the alleged "proceeds of crime" in the case at Rs 2,161 crore.

Money was "illegally" collected from "every" bottle of liquor sold in Chhattisgarh and evidence of "unprecedented" corruption and money laundering of Rs 2,000 crore generated by an alcohol syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar has been unearthed, the ED had alleged.

The alleged liquor scam ran between 2019 and 2022, as per the ED.

The central agency had alleged that the commission generated through the illegal sale of liquor was shared "as per the directions from the highest political executives of the state". PTI