The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police apprehended Vidhu Gupta, director of the Noida based Prism Holography and Security Film Private Limited and an accused in the multi-crore Chhattisgarh’s alleged liquor scam, on Thursday, May 2.
Gupta was taken into custody in connection with a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the UP police at Kasna police station against as many as five persons, including Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Anil Tuteja, an alleged kingpin of the Rs 2000 crore liquor scam.
The other accused in the case are former Managing Director (MD) of the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL), Arun Pati Tripathi, former excise commissioner and IAS, Niranjan Das, and Anwar Dhebar, a key accused and the brother of senior congress leader of Chhattisgarh and Raipur’s mayor, Ajaz Dhebar.
Earlier, the Organiser in August last year about the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) direction to the Uttar Pradesh Police to take stringent action against the bureaucrats who are involved in cases of graft.
The ED in its complaint, had asked the UP police to investigate irregularities by a Noida based company, ‘Prizm Holography Security Films Private limited’ owned by Vidhu Gupta for supplying duplicate holograms to the liquor syndicate allegedly operating in Chhattisgarh. Following ED’s complaint, a case was filed in the Kasna police station under section 120-B/420/468/471/473 and 484 of the Indian Penal Code on July 30.
As per the details of FIR accessed by the Organiser, the ED stated in its complaint that an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has revealed that one company, namely M/s Prizm Holography Security Films Private Limited, based at Noida, was illegally granted a tender to supply Holograms to the Excise department of Chhattisgarh.
The company was not eligible to participate in the tender process, but in connivance with the company’s owner, the senior officials of the state of Chhattisgarh, namely Arun Pati Tripathi, Niranjan Das and Anil Tuteja modified the tender condition and illegally allotted the tender to the M/s Prizm Holography Security Films Private limited Noida.
As a quid pro quo, they took commission of 8 paisa per hologram and also took a commitment to supply unaccounted duplicate holograms to carry out a sinister crime of selling illegal country liquor bottles from state run shops in Chhattisgarh.
The hologram was, in fact, a safety feature to ensure that authenticated liquor is sold in the state. But the action of M/s Prizm Holography in manufacturing duplicate Holograms in Noida, allowed the Liquor syndicate to use the very same safety feature to fool the gullible general customers.
The complaint further disclosed that the ED’s investigation has revealed that tender was allotted to this company as part of the criminal conspiracy and M/s Prizm Holography Security Films Private limited was granted the tender in order to ensure smooth supply of duplicate holograms to the liquor syndicate.
The Holograms were made at the Noida factory, and then transported to Chhattisgarh as per the instructions from the Liquor syndicate leaders. The syndicate, as part of the arrangement, allotted the contract to supply 80 crore holograms in 5 years at a highly inflated price to M/s Prizm Holography Security Films Private limited in return for on-demand supply of duplicate holograms.
Recent developments in the case
It is worth mentioning, that the ED was granted a further remand of six days of the main accused in the case, Anil Tuteja by a special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court on April 29. Tuteja, a 2003 batch IAS officer who retired last year, is alleged by the ED to be the main kingpin of the scam and was closely associated with Anwar Dhebar, another key figure of the scam.
Earlier, the central agency had arrested Tuteja after grilling him in connection with the case on April 20. Tuteja was taken to the EDs office from Economic Offence Wing and the Anti Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB) office where he had arrived to record his statement into the same case.
It is noteworthy that the Economic Offence Wing and the Anti Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB) had also registered a case after the ED submitted its investigation report to the agencies indicating an alleged scam of over Rs 2000 crore in January this year.
In the FIR filed, the agencies had named as many as 70 people, including of businessmen, leaders of the Congress party, and a few State officials, in connection with the multi crore scam.
Recently, EOW/ACB had also arrested Arun Pati Tripathi in connection with the case on April 11, The agencies had earlier also apprehended transporter Arvind Singh and Anwar Dhebar.
Significantly, the ED after its previous probe, claimed to unearth a Rs 2100 crore liquor scam in the state being operated by a cartel composed of bureaucrats, private liquor suppliers, government officials and persons with heavy political backing.
