The Chhattisgarh government led by Chief Minister, Vishnu Deo Sai has approved a new excise policy for the state. The decision was taken in a cabinet meeting held at Mantralaya Mahanadi Bhavan in State’s capital Raipur on Wednesday, June 19.
According to the details, the state government under the changes made in the excise policy has done away with the licensing system related to foreign liquor which was under scanner after allegations of wide-scale corruption linked to liquor sale have surfaced during the previous government of Congress.
“The Cabinet has approved the wholesale purchase of foreign liquor directly from the manufacturing units, ending the system of FL 10 AB license currently in vogue for the wholesale selling and storage of foreign liquor” read a press release issued by the government on Wednesday, June 19.
“It is worth mentioning here that the procurement of foreign liquor was earlier done through licensees. Besides ending this system, the government has now entrusted Chhattisgarh Beverage Corporation with the responsibility to procure foreign liquor”, it added.
According to the reports, the Chief Minister during the meeting said that “there were large scale irregularities in the previous system causing immense financial losses to state and emphasized a clean and transparent business environment”.
“By taking control of the distribution process, we aim to streamline process, reduce costs for manufacturers and enhance customer satisfactions”, added the Chief Minister in the meeting.
Now after the implementation of the new policy, the government will buy and sale liquor directly from the manufacturers eliminating the role of middlemen in the liquor trade.
Alleged Liquor Scam
Notably, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier claimed to unearth a multi-crore liquor scam worth over Rs 2000 crore being operated by a cartel composed of bureaucrats, private liquor suppliers, government officials and persons with heavy political backing in the state between the year 2019 to 2022 under the previous regime.
According to the ED, corruption was done in multiple ways which includes of bribes collected from the distillers per each Case of liquor procured from them by the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL), a state body for purchase and sale of liquor, sale of unaccounted Kachha off- the-book Country liquor which was sold from State run shops only, bribes taken from distillers to allow them to make a cartel and fixed market share and commission from FL 10 A license holders who were introduced in foreign liquor segment also.
The ED investigation into the case had further revealed that “an organised criminal syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar, one of the key accused in the case was operating in the state with the support of senior officials of the state government.
Investigation by multiple agencies
It is noteworthy that the alleged scam is currently being investigated by the ED, Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh police who registered an FIR into the case following directives of the ED in July last year.
As of now the UP police has nabbed Vidhu Gupta, director of the Noida based Prism Holography and Security Film Private Limited on charges of supplying duplicate holograms to the liquor syndicate operating in Chhattisgarh on May 2.
Recently, the Special Task Force (STF) of the UP police has also been granted transit remand of Anwar Dhebar by a Raipur court following which Anwar was produced before a Meerut court on June 21, from where he has been sent in judicial remand till July 1.
Anwar was taken into the custody by the UP STF after he walks out from the jail on late Tuesday evening. He was granted a bail into the case by Bilaspur High Court on medical grounds on June 14 following his arrest by the EOW.
Meanwhile taking its probe forward into the matter, the ED in April this year filed a fresh ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) into the case following the apex court quashed its earlier FIR which was based on an Income Tax department complaint.
Following the new ECIR, the ED had nabbed former IAS official and kingpin of the scam, Anil Tuteja on April 20. Tuteja was taken into custody by ED’s official from the EOW office where he had arrived to record his statement into the same case.
Tuteja, a 2003 batch IAS officer who retired last year, was allegedly the main kingpin of the scam and was closely associated with Anwar Dhebar. According to ED, the former IAS also played a significant role in the appointment of another key accused in the case, Arun Pati Tripathi as the managing director of CSMCL.
It is worth mentioning here, that other than the ED and Up police, the EOW had also filed a separate FIR 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 agency after filing of the FIR had apprehended Anwar Dhebar, Arvind Singh and Arun Pati Tripathi, all accused in the multi-crore scam.
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