As part of an ongoing investigation into the state’s liquor scam, the ED raided 14 places in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district on Monday, including homes and other properties owned by former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and his son Chaitanya.
Chaitanya is allegedly the beneficiary of the criminal gains from the liquor scam, with an astounding sum of over Rs 2,161crore purportedly diverted through a number of fraudulent schemes, according to ED sources. Investigators are examining new leads in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam, which has a total estimated value of Rs 4,000 crore.
This comes about a month after Kawasi Lakma, the state’s former excise minister, was arrested in January. Following Lakma’s imprisonment, a series of incidents escalated the investigation into Baghel and his family.
The former chief minister’s office released a statement on X after the raid started. “When the false case going on for seven years was dismissed in the court, today the guests of ED entered the Bhilai residence of former chief minister, Congress General Secretary Bhupesh Baghel, this morning. If someone is trying to stop Congress in Punjab through such conspiracies, then they have misunderstood the situation,” said the statement.
Properties and other assets connected to Baghel and his family, including Chaitanya, as well as close acquaintances of Chaitanya and Laxmi Narayan Bansal, also known as Pappu Bansal, are the target of the searches, according to a senior ED official. The probe, which has already implicated a number of high-profile individuals, including an ex-minister and a few bureaucrats, has significantly escalated, as seen by the ED’s comprehensive search operation.
In addition to the numerous corruption cases in West Bengal and Jharkhand, the ED is looking into at least three significant corruption cases in Chhattisgarh: the paddy or PDS fraud, the mining or coal levy, and the liquor industry. In relation to three different corruption investigations in the state, a senior ex-minister was detained and at least five senior IAS officers were raided and taken into custody.
The state’s liquor procurement process was deemed “arbitrary, non-transparent, and vague, as it has conferred unguided and unbridled discretion in the process of procurement of liquor,” according to writ petitions filed in 2018 by two liquor companies, which manufacture and sell foreign liquor in India.
In 2023, the ED opened an investigation into the Chhattisgarh excise or liquor scandal. The investigation showed that the government exchequer suffered an approximate loss of Rs 3,800 crore (out of books) as a result of a relationship between three distillery owners or distributors and a group of government officials.
In the past, private stores were not allowed in Chhattisgarh; instead, the state’s booze is sold in government-owned establishments. According to data from the excise department, the state has 672 of these retail establishments, and on average, they bring in between Rs 28 and Rs 32 crore every day in cash sales. However, purportedly with the assistance of a businessman-politician-bureaucrat nexus, the illegal liquor syndicates began distributing unaccounted-for and unprocessed liquor throughout the state.
In connection with the case, the ED detained Arun Pati Tripathi, special secretary in the excise department, who the investigators claimed had altered the liquor regulation to accommodate the link. Later, the ED questioned Anil Tuteja and Ranu Sahu too, both of them senior IAS officers, serving in the state.
The political impact from the liquor fraud is expected to continue as the directorate refocuses on it. The former chief minister is under increasing pressure due to the extent of financial malfeasance in his administration.
