Raipur
For the third time today, the Enforcement Directorate had called former Excise Minister Kawasi Lakhma and son Harish Lakhma for questioning in the famous Rs 2000 crore liquor scam case of Chhattisgarh. After interrogation, ED has arrested Kawasi Lakhma. After the arrest, Kawasi Lakhma has been produced in the court of Justice Atul Srivastava. His son Harish Lakhma has also reached the court.
Let us tell you that in the liquor scam case, on December 28, ED had raided the premises of former minister Lakhma and his son Harish Lakhma. During the raid, ED had informed about finding evidence of cash transactions. On January 3, both were released after interrogation.
What is Chhattisgarh’s liquor scam?
On May 11, 2022, the Income Tax Department had filed a petition in Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court against former IAS Anil Tuteja, his son Yash Tuteja and Soumya Chaurasia. In which it was told that a game of bribery and illegal brokerage involving unaccounted money is going on in Chhattisgarh. Mayor Aijaz Dhebar’s brother Anwar Dhebar’s brother is involved in the game of illegal extortion. After which ED registered a case under PMLA Act on November 18, 2022. Till now, the matter of scam of Rs 2161 crore has been mentioned in the charge sheet presented in the court.
According to the ED charge sheet, in the year 2017, the excise policy was amended to make a provision for selling liquor through CSMCL, but after 2019, liquor scam kingpin Anwar Dhebar appointed Arunpati Tripathi as the MD of CSMCL, after which officials, businessmen, Corruption was done through a syndicate of people with political influence, which led to a scam of Rs 2161 crore. Arunpati Tripathi, who was the MD of CSMCL, used to permit the liquor of his favorite distiller. A commission of Rs 75 was to be given on a case of country liquor, Tripathi used to prepare an excel sheet of this commission and send it to Anwar Dhebar. It is alleged that the syndicate of Anwar Dhebar and Arunpati Tripathi sold liquor illegally by installing fake holograms. This caused huge loss to the state’s revenue. Only three groups of liquor were sold in CSMCL shops through the criminal syndicate, which included 52 percent of Kedia Group’s liquor, 30 percent of Bhatia Group and 18 percent of Welcome Group.
