Raipur
In Chhattisgarh, the team of ACB and EOW has raided the locations of former ministers Kavasi Lakhma and his close ones. The team of ACB and Eoddle again raided the hideout of former Excise Minister Kavasi Lakhma and his close ones regarding the liquor scam in the state. On Saturday morning, the team of EODLU has raided about 15 locations including Raipur, Jagdalpur, Sukma, Tongpal, Dantewada, Ambikapur. Different teams of about 100 officers raided.
Joint teams of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offex Wing (EOW) raided on Saturday at Dantewada, Sukma and Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh. This action was taken on liquor scam and disproportionate assets cases. According to sources, raids of people associated with former ministers Kavasi Lakhma were conducted in Tongpal and Sukma in Dantewada district.
Congress leader Rajkumar raids on the bases of Tamb
In Dantewada, Congress leaders reached the residence of Rajkumar Tambas in the morning. The copper is considered close to Kavasi Lakhma and the leader of the poor. Sources say that the teams are taking action on the basis of important documents. In search of evidence related to the liquor scam, there is a thorough investigation of their houses and offices. At the same time, the ACB team raided the house of reputed businessman Ashok Aggarwal in Ambikapur. Agarwal Flag Jambham Ramkumar is the operator of the business establishment and does the work of supply material in government departments.
Raid on 4 locations in Sakuma district
The ACB team started investigation at his residence in Basantlal Gali in Kotwali police station area in the morning. ACB also raided the house of a hardware shopkeeper at Sukma district headquarters. This action is being taken in case of disproportionate assets. Raids were conducted simultaneously at four different places at the district headquarters. This action of ACB and Eow has caused a stir in the area. Investigation is going on at all places and important documents are being seized. The officials have not yet issued any official statement.
The houses of Ji Nageshwar Rao and G. Srinivasa Rao located in the martyr Hemu Kalani ward of Devendra Nagar in Raipur have also been raised. Srinivas was a councilor candidate from Congress. Nageshwar Rao Kaswasi is close to Lakhma and his son Harish Lakhma. About 8-10 officers in 2 trains have raided. The Eow-ACB team is investigating the documents.
In Dantewada, Congress leader Rajkumar Tamo’s house has been raided by ACB-Eow. Rajkumar Tamo is considered close to Kavasi Lakhma. There have been raids at 4 places in Sukma district. In this, action is going on at 3 places of district headquarters and 1 of Tongpal.
Red against firm related to textile business in Ambikapur
These include hardware and petrol pump traders. All these people are also said to be close to Kavasi Lakhma. Action has also been taken in Ambikapur. Here the team of ACB-Eow raided the hideouts of the operators of the textile business firm Dhajaram-Winod Kumar.
The name of this firm has already come in the DMF scam. An FIR is registered against them. In the past, ED and Income Tax Department (IT) have taken action against these traders. The firm’s operators are Mukesh Aggarwal and Vinod Aggarwal, whose houses started raids on Saturday morning.
More big names can be revealed in the scam
During the raid, many important information related to documents and transactions is being collected. The ACB-Eow teams are currently investigating. The work of investigating the entire network is going on. It is believed that more big names can be revealed in this scam in the coming days.
What is a liquor scam?
Chhattisgarh is investigating the ED in the liquor scam case. ED has lodged an FIR in ACB. In the lodged FIR, there is talk of scam of more than 2 thousand crore rupees. The ED in its investigation found that during the tenure of the then Bhupesh government, the scam was carried out through the syndicate of IAS officer Anil Tuteja, Excise Department MD AP Tripathi and businessman Anwar Dhebar.
ACB is investigating the FIR lodged by ED. According to information received from ACB, illegal liquor was sold from government liquor shops by installing duplicate holograms from 2019 to 2022. Due to this, the government has lost crores of revenue.
ED’s charge- Lakhma was an important part of the syndicate
The ED alleges that former minister and current MLA Kavasi Lakhma was an important part of Syndicate. Syndicate used to work on Lakhma’s instructions. These helped the liquor syndicate. He played an important role in changing the liquor policy, which launched the FL-10 license in Chhattisgarh. The same ED claims that Lakhma was aware of the disturbances in the Excise Department, but he did nothing to stop it.
Son’s house became home with commission money, Congress building construction also
ED lawyer Saurabh Pandey said that the liquor scam went for 3 years. Lakhma used to get 2 crore rupees every month. During this period, Lakhma received 72 crores in 36 months. These amounts were engaged in the construction of the house of his son Harish Kavasi and the construction of Congress Bhavan Sukma.
The ED said that the liquor scam in Chhattisgarh has caused huge loss to the treasury. Illegal earnings of more than Rs 2,100 crore were paid in the pockets of people of liquor syndicate.
Scam amount over 2100 crores
Regarding action against Lakhma, it was said by the Directorate that the investigation had earlier revealed that the liquor syndicate of Anwar Dhebar, Anil Tuteja and others was working in the state of Chhattisgarh. The amount of this scam is more than Rs 2100 crore.
According to the ED in the liquor scam between 2019 and 2022, this was how illegal earnings were made.
Part-A Commission: CSMCL, ie for the purchase and sale of liquor, bribes were taken from distillers for ‘case’ for liquor purchased by the state body.
Part-B sale of raw liquor: Unaccounted ‘raw off-the-book’ soldiers were sold. In this case, not a single rupee reached the government treasury and the Syndicate grabbed the entire amount of sales. Illegal liquor was sold from government shops.
Part-C commission: Bribe was taken from liquor makers to make cartel and get a fixed share in the market. FL-10 a license holders were commissioned commissions, which were brought for earning in foreign liquor sector.
What is FL-10 license?
FL-10 has full form, Foreign Licker-10. This license was issued by the state government to purchase foreign liquor in Chhattisgarh. The companies that have received this license used to supply liquor from manufactures i.e. manufacturers and supplies it to the government. They can also be called third party.
Apart from procurement, storage and transportation work is also available under this license. However, these companies did not work for storage and transportation. It was given to the Beverages Corporation. This license also consisted of license holders of A and B category.
FL-10A The license-holder of this category can sell Indians from the manufacturers of any state of the country to the department by taking foreign liquor.
FL-10B can sell foreign brand liquor from state liquor manufacturers to the department.
