New Delhi: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Chhattisgarh has filed two FIRs based on the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) complaints against Congress leaders, including former ministers Amarjeet Bhagat and Kawasi Lakhma, and state officials for their alleged involvement in two syndicates that ran rackets in the mining and excise departments.
The complaints, which were based on the ED’s probe in 2022, led to the FIRs on 17 January.
The FIRs, accessed by ThePrint, named multiple entities, including the two former ministers and some Congress MLAs, and excise and mining officials who were allegedly working hand in glove with the kingpins of the two syndicates.
In 2022, the ED started investigating both the rackets and arrested 11 accused in the first case. The complaint in the excise ‘scam’ was made on 11 July last year, while it was filed on 11 January in coal levy.
In the complaints, which are mentioned in the FIR, the ED said it found “predicate crimes” that come under the state’s ACB and, hence, those findings were being shared with it.
The coal FIR booked 35 individuals, including former deputy secretary to then chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Saumya Chaurisa, under Sections 7 (bribes to public servants), 7A (influencing public servants by corrupt means) and 12 (punishment for abetment of offences) of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.
The alleged kingpin, Suryakant Tiwari, who ran operations in collusion with the then director of geology and mining, Sameer Vishnoi, and then Korba collector Ranu Sahu were also booked.
In the second FIR pertaining to the liquor syndicate lodged under Sections 7,12 of the PCA and IPC sections 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery), 471 (using forged documents as genuine), 120B and 420, Anwar Dhebar, the alleged lynchpin, along with officials at the state and district excise among others were booked.
Kawasi Lakhma, the then Chhattisgarh excise minister, was allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh per month by the liquor syndicate, the FIR stated.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Raipur Friday, Baghel alleged that the ACB was working at the behest of the ED and that the FIRs are moves to defame the Congress leaders.
#WATCH | Raipur (Chhattisgarh ): On the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registering an FIR against former Congress ministers in alleged coal and liquor scam cases, former Chhattisgarh CM and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel says, “For the last 3 years ED and IT were investigating this… pic.twitter.com/YfMMW8MFok
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) January 26, 2024
“Many people, including former MLA U.D. Minj, Gulabh Kamro, MLA Kawasi Lakhma and others were named, which were never mentioned by ED in its charge sheet filed after two years of investigation. It clearly shows that this is an attempt to defame our leaders keeping in mind the Lok Sabha election,” the ex-chief minister added.
Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla also reiterated that the FIRs were a political conspiracy to tarnish image of the party leaders. “The FIRs have been filed in the cases the ED is investigating. So why all of sudden have the ACB filed cases? In one of the FIRs, it named 70 accused and named other Congress officials, which is a clear indication of a political conspiracy to defame us just before the election,” Shukla told ThePrint Saturday.
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Coal ‘extortion racket’ & ‘cash diary’
The ED said that Suryakant Tiwari was the “perpetrator” of the “extortion racket” and that officials, such as Vishnoi, Chaurasia and Sahu, with help from political executives, helped him to extract money from every tonne of coal transportation.
The coal cartel, it estimated, minted Rs 540 crore in extortion, which were allegedly passed on to political leaders and executives as kickbacks, as well as used for the purchase of benami assets by Tiwari.
The probe agency said that Tiwari influenced Vishnoi to do away with the online system that was in place and brought in a manual system, in which coal transporters had to take a NOC from the mining section of the DM’s office.
This was not for “ease of doing business” but to allow Tiwari and his accomplices to extract Rs 25 per tonne of coal transportation by making them dependent on NOCs from local DM offices, it said.
Tiwari’s role became clear in a note seized by the I-T department during a raid at his Raipur residence, it alleged. The I-T officers had seized a diary from the residence of Tiwari’s elder brother Rajnikant in which income and expenditure were mentioned in detail.
In the next step of conspiracy, the ED said, Chauraisa who was working as deputy secretary in the CMO, helped Tiwari and his aides by posting “pliable” officers in mining areas. Chaurasia got money produced through the racket, which was spent on political funds and some were even transferred on the directions of “higher powers”, it added.
Congress treasurer Ram Gopal Agarwal received Rs 52 crore from the racket, while Bhilai Nagar MLA Devendra Singh Yadav pocketed Rs 3 crore, it claimed.
It added that Congress spokesperson Ram Pratap Singh got Rs 2.01 crore, while Kanker MLA Shishupal Sori got Rs 1.10 crore as kickback. In total, the ED alleged that 12 “politically exposed persons” received nearly Rs 61 crore from the syndicate.
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Illegal liquor cartel
In the illegal liquor supply, the ED alleged that Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar’s brother Anwar and his close associate and IAS officer Anil Tuteja placed Indian Trade Service (ITS) officer Arunpati Tripathi as the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) head to form a “criminal syndicate.”
It claimed that the syndicate collected money from the sale of illegal liquor from the government-run outlets as well as by creating a parallel mechanism of collecting revenue.
The ED alleged that the syndicate generated Rs 2,161 crore through three methods — illegal commission from liquor suppliers for the sale of liquor, sale of unaccounted illegal liquor from shops, and annual commission paid by distillers in exchange for permission to run cartels.
Anwar was a person of strong political links and used his sways to place his men at all the “crucial points” related to the sale of liquor and was the “man on the ground” for all the three modes of corruption, it said.
He placed Tripathi as the CSMCL head with the help of Tuteja after which the former issued “necessary directions” to excise officials in 15 districts to increase the sale of illicit liquor, the ED claimed.
It stated that there were sales of 200 trucks carrying 800 cases of illicit liquor every month in 2019-20, which doubled to 400 trucks in 2022-23.
The agency alleged that Tripathi handed out contracts to two firms for manpower supply and hologram creation to be used on cases of illicit liquor between 2019 and 2022. It added that all these beneficiary companies worked in close coordination with him and others involved in the syndicate.
Both Anwar and Tripathi were arrested by the ED as part of a money-laundering probe, but it said that the role of district-level excise officials needs to be investigated.
The ED further alleged it has received inputs from sources that two officials, Niranjan Das — who was excise secretary and also went on to hold the additional charge as excise commissioner — and a retired IAS officer, Vivek Dhandh, were actively involved in this syndicate of illegal liquor cartel in the state.
ThePrint reached both Das and Dhandh on call and WhatsApp but failed to get a comment. The report will be updated once a response is received.
The agency alleged that three companies close to Dhebar got FL 10A licence, which enabled them to supply foreign liquor to the state and earn 10 percent commission. This money was further distributed between themselves and the syndicate, it added.
The ED alleged that Dhandh was close to the Congress government and was giving “protection” to the syndicate in exchange for a commission.
“It is requested that in addition to the proceeding under the PMLA, the investigating agency of Chhattisgarh may also take cognisance of the details shared by ED and initiate an investigation under the relevant provisions of PCA against Tuteja & Tripathi,” stated the FIR.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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