The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been granted permission by a special PMLA court to interrogate all the three arrested accused of the alleged liquor scam of Chhattisgarh between May 27 to 31.
ED has earlier filed an application before the court to interrogate Anwar Dhebar, Trilok Singh Dhillon and Arun Pati Tripathi, all accused in the multi crore scam worth over 2000 crore.
The officials of the central agency will be questioning the trio in connection with the scam that allegedly flourished under the nose of the Bhupesh Baghel led previous government in Chhattisgarh. The court has already extended the judicial custody of Dhebar, Arun Pati Tripathi, Arvind Singh and Dillon till 30th of this month.
It must be noted that earlier a special court of Raipur had also granted a 14-day ED’s remand of former IAS office Anil Tuteja on May 06. Tuteja was alleged to be the kingpin of the scam according to the ED.
Notably, the agency had arrested Tuteja after grilling him in connection with the case on April 20. Tuteja was taken to the EDs office from EOW/ACB office where he had arrived to record his statement into the same case.
Chhattisgarh Liquor Scam: Retired IAS and accused Anil Tuteja sent to ED’s remand for 14 days……
Meanwhile a special court on May 16 also rejected the bail petition filed by Anwar Dhebar, a key accused and brother of senior congress leader and Raipur’s mayor Ejaj Dhebar. Dhebar was nabbed by the Economic Offence Wing/ Anti-Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB) in April this year.
Days after the arrest of Anwar, the agency had also apprehended Arun Pati Tripathi, former special secretary at the excise department from Gopalganj of Bihar on April 11 this year.
ED files fresh ECIR into the case
It is worth mentioning here that the ED filed a fresh ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) into the matter after the apex court quashed its earlier FIR which was based on an Income Tax department complaint. The fresh ECIR is based on the FIR registered by the EOW/ACB.
The EOW/ACB filed an FIR into the matter against 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 in January this year.
The case was registered by the agency after ED submitted its investigation report indicating an alleged scam of multi crores. It is pertinent to mentioning here that the ED, after its previous probe, claimed to unearth a Rs2100 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.
