Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh will have Assembly Elections this year. While Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is eying to become the longest-serving CM of any state, the CM of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, is surrounded with questions over scams.
We will be exposing the money-driven Congress government in the state, with the help of seven such scams, happened since Congress resumed office. As of now, the Indian National Congress (INC) is in power in as many as six states.
2000 Crore Liquor Scam
In May 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) busted a Rs 2,000-crore ‘scam’ in Chhattisgarh which was believed to be operated with the help of top politicians and bureaucrats. The ED arrested a key accused, Anwar Dhebar, who was sent to ED custody by a Raipur court. Anwar Dhebar is the brother of Congress leader and Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar.
Notably, the probe by the ED revealed the whole syndicate involved in the racket. “PMLA investigation revealed that an organised criminal syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar was operating in Chhattisgarh. Anwar Dhebar, though a private citizen, was backed and worked for illegal gratification of the high-level political executives and senior bureaucrats,” the ED said.
It is noteworthy that Chhatisgarh generates the highest contribution in excise from the liquor circulation in the state. The excise department are responsible for the regulation of the liquor in the state and the quality of the product. Also, the state government controls all the aspects of liquor trade from procurement to retail sale to consumer sale. No private liquor shops are allowed. All 800 liquor shops are run by the state government.
Dhebar was not following any such regulations and was running like a private entity. “With the support of political executives, Anwar Dhebar managed to get a pliant Commissioner and MD of CSMCL, and hired close associates like Vikas Agarwal and Arvind Singh to make the system completely subservient to him. He controlled the entire chain of the liquor trade starting from — private distillers, FL-10A license holders, senior officers of the excise department, district-level excise officers, manpower suppliers, glass bottle makers, hologram makers, cash collection vendors etc. and leveraged it to extort the maximum amount of bribes and commission. Various other stakeholders were also illegally benefitted in the process,” the ED added.
How the syndicate operated?
Commission of Rs 75-150 per case (depending on type of liquor) was fastidiously charged by the syndicate from the suppliers for each accounted cash procured.
Dhebar, in conspiracy with others, started getting manufacturing unaccounted country-made raw liquor and sold them through government-run shops. This way, they could keep the entire sale proceeds without depositing anything in the state exchequer. Duplicate holograms were provided, duplicate bottles were procured in cash, and liquor was transported directly from a distiller to shops by-passing state warehouses.
This was an annual commission that was paid by the main distillers for getting a distillery license and getting a fixed share in the market purchase of CSMCL. Commission from FL-10A license holders was also charged from foreign liquor suppliers. These licenses were given to the associates of Anwar Dhebar.
1000 Crore PDS Scam
In March 2023, during the state assembly sessions, the matter of the Public Distribution System (PDS) scam was highlighted by the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Notably, the BJP leaders claimed that the scam in allotting ration via the PDS system had faults in around 13 thousand 301 outlets, whereas the Congress claimed that irregularities were reported in just 8,000 outlets. Out of the claimed 13 thousand stores, 40 percent of stores were proven to have used illegal practices.
Alone in the rice allocation, a scam of Rs 600 Crores was revealed. Not only in rice, sugar, gram, salt, jaggery and details of the other pieces of stuff were missing from the portal. The BJP alleged that the ruling Congress government took bribes of Rs 10 Lakh each from the stores for skipping the staff verifications.
It is noteworthy that, while the BJP was in power the allocation and distribution through PDS stores were available online, since the Congress came in power, the portal was shut down and this led to suspicion.
540 Crore Coal Scam
In June 2023, the ED revealed that, said a special PMLA court in Raipur has taken cognizance of two prosecution complaints filed by them in connection with a case pertaining to illegal levy on the movement of coal and iron pellets.
The ED said that their investigation has established that proceeds of crime worth Rs 540 crore were acquired in this extortion racket and was utilised for political expenditure, creation of benami assets and bribing officials.
The ED also attached assets worth more than Rs 220 crore in this case.
The ED said that they were conducting money laundering investigation against coal businessman Suryakant Tiwari and Chaurasia who were extorting illegal levy on the movement of coal, iron pellets etc.
The alleged scam had been at the centre of a political storm in Chhattisgarh and seen the arrests of IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, businessman Sunil Agrawal, Laxmikant Tiwari, Suryakant Tiwari and Chaurasia among other accomplices including officials of the mining department. The agency also alleged that the accused created a nexus that then collected illegal levies of Rs 25 per tonne of coal that was transported from mines in Chhattisgarh, and a part of the money was used for “election funding” and bribing officials.
The ED’s charge sheet also claimed that they have recovered two diaries, which contain 950 entries, detailing transactions worth Rs 540 crore. Out of this amount, the diaries show that Rs 170 crore was used to allegedly purchase benaami assets, 36 crore was given to Chaurasia via one Manish Upadhyaya, Rs 52 crore was paid to a senior politician, 4 crore to some MLAs in Chhattisgarh among other transactions.
229 Crore Gobar and 1000 Crore Gothan Scam
In July 2023, during the assembly proceedings, the BJP accused the state government led by CM Bhupesh Baghel of engaging in a monetary scam involving the trade of cow dung. BJP MLAs Narayan Chandel and Saurabh Singh stated that the cow dung scam (gobar ghotala) was even bigger than the fodder scam that involved the embezzlement of about Rs 9.4 billion from the government treasury of Bihar.
According to the reports, the leader during the last day of the Monsoon session of the state assembly raised several questions regarding the purchase and sale of cow dung and exposed that the state was embezzling around Rs 229 crores in the case.
The minister told that 10,336 gothans are approved in the state, out of which 10,240 gothans have been made, while 84 have not been made. From January 2, 2019, to June 30, 2023, a total of 1,23,19,845.64 quintal cow dung was purchased by the government, for which an amount of Rs 24,639.69 lakhs has been paid. Further cow dung worth more than Rs 291 crores has been sold. The deal garners good profit, they said.
BJP MLA Saurabh Singh stated that no minister in the government knows where the balance cow dung worth Rs 229 crores is stored. “This whole ‘gobar scam’ is a forgery on paper. Cow dung worth Rs 246 crore was bought and cow dung worth Rs 17 crore was sold, then where is the remaining cow dung worth Rs 229 crore?” he questioned Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu on July 22.
The leader also said that the state had purchased 282,000 kg of cow dung from three women of the same family who didn’t even own a cow. “The family was paid more than Rs 5 lakhs. The government has done scam in the name of cow dung purchase,” the leader pressed video of which has gone viral over the internet.
The CGPSC Scam
In May 2023, the opposition BJP hit the streets and presented a memorandum regarding the irregularities in appointments of the state civil servants based on the state public service commission examinations. The BJP alleged that the relatives and associates of the ruling Congress government, the chairperson of the State PCS and others were appointed over the eligible candidates, fraudulently.
BJP spokesperson Gaurishankar Shriwas said that we have submitted a memorandum to the Governor regarding the scam in CGPSC-2021 recruitment. We have demanded that a fair investigation should be conducted by the CBI in this matter. Along with this, a narco test should also be conducted for the Chairman of the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission and the Controller of Examinations, so that the truth can come out and strict action can be taken against the culprits. Due to this, lakhs of youth in the state, who are preparing for competitive exams, will get justice.
Other than these five scams, the other two are related to mass religious conversions, rising Maoist activities in the region, and crime against women. Organiser has been actively covering these crimes and readers can find detailed reports on them here.
Mass Conversion Scam
As far as conversions are concerned, if we talk about the census figures released by the central government. About 62% of these people who were converted after getting trapped by the inveigle of missionaries are living in Jashpur, Surguja and Raigad districts. Significantly, these districts have a notable population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, most of whom live in rural areas. Altogether, about 87% of the population of these districts lives in backward rural areas where Christian missionaries have been tempted to convert them.
After the formation of a separate state of Chhattisgarh in the year 2000, the situation regarding conversion in the state worsened when Ajit Jogi, the first Chief Minister of the state, complied with Christianity throughout his life and came into power. During his tenure, there were several reports related to the conversion of people of the Urao community by the Christian missionaries with the administration’s help. Most of these conversions were done in Koriya, Jashpur, Marwahi, and Korba of the Surguja division. Although an anti-conversion law was passed in the assembly to prevent illegal conversions since the Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in the state; it does not have a wide impact on preventing grassroots conversion because of weak provisions.
It should be noted that these Christian missionaries, who have done the abominable act of converting people of gullible tribal groups, have their penetration among the local leaders and the senior officials of the administration. Along with this, these people also have a deep hold on the international community. Whenever their dark exploits come to the fore, such people shout in their defence. Articles are written in their favour in newspapers internationally. Apart from this, certain writers strongly support their black exploits in the name of religious autonomy. Chad.M.Bauman’s(a professor at Butler University in Indiana) book Christian Identity and Dalit Religion reflects this very mindset.
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