Chhattisgarh liquor scam under ED scanner; agency summons two officers for questioning

RAIPUR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating a liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, has written to the state chief secretary requesting that two officers, including a 2003 batch IAS officer, be served with the summons and instructed to attend the central agency for questioning regarding the ongoing investigation.
In its letter to the chief secretary on April 15, the ED's assistant director said that the directorate is investigating a case against IAS officer Anil Tuteja and others under the provisions of the Money Laundering Act 2002 in connection with the ECIR for probe into the liquor scam, a senior state government official confirmed.
The letter said that Arunpathi Tripathi, the managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL), missed the last summons on April 12.
IAS officer Anil Tuteja, who is currently posted as joint secretary in the commerce and industries department, has not appeared on four designated dates, the letter said and requested the chief secretary to intervene as the head of the state machinery to ensure their presence.
On March 31, ED officials swooped down on the premises of Tuteja, CSMCL managing director Arunpathi Tripathi, other officers, liquor businessmen and others.
Subsequently, a summons was issued to them to appear before the agency.
Late on Monday evening, the state government issued an order posting a new person as managing director of CSMCL until the present MD returns from leave.
The ED began its probe in Chhattisgarh in October last year by carrying out raids on IAS officers and other officials and businessmen.
The central agency had also issued a press release in the second week of October that it was probing an illegal coal levy scam — a cartel involving officials and businessmen.
The agency had maintained that the more than Rs 500-crore scam involved the illegal extortion of money for transporting coal at a rate of Rs 25 per tonne.
Now, with the letter to the chief secretary, it has officially come to light that the central agency is now probing a liquor scam.
However, there is no information about the nature and magnitude of the scam, its modus operandi, and those who were being probed in connection with the liquor scam.
In the coal levy scam, the ED arrested IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, Saumya Chaurasia, who was then posted as deputy secretary in the chief minister's office, and businessmen Surya Kant Tiwari, Sunil Agrawal, Laxmikant Tiwari, and others.
All those arrested are now in judicial custody.