A DAY after the country’s top court quashed money laundering investigation by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Rs 2,200 crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, the federal agency, in a discreet move, filed a fresh Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the alleged corruption in State’s liquor trade. “ED Raipur Zonal Office (RPZO) registered the ECIR – corresponding to police’s First Information Report (FIR) – under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) after which the authorities in State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) were also duly notified, as part of Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) protocols. Following the registration of ECIR, the ED has also appointed an Assistant Director ranked officer as Investigation Officer (IO) to initiate the probe,” highly-placed sources told The Hitavada, requesting anonymity. Sources averred that the RPZO ED has requested the SEOIACB to share with their detailed findings, with regards to February 25 search and seizure operations on 13 premises, including that of two former IAS officers, an excise officer and a few businessmen, in connection with the liquor scam.

 

“The fresh ECIR in the scam is based on the January 17 FIR registered by SEOIACB having identified 70 people as beneficiaries of the scam, which generated proceeds of crimes (PoC) worth Rs 2161 crore. The State’s anti-graft agency in their FIR duly identified former Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand (retired IAS officer), former Secretary of Commerce and Industry department Anil Tuteja (retired IAS officer), then commissioner of excise department Niranjan Das, Excise Officer Ashok Kumar Singh, businessman Anwar Dhebar (brother of Congress leader and Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar), Arvind Singh and Siddarth Singhania in Raipur, then special secretary of Excise Department and Managing Director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited Arunpati Tripathi (Indian Telecom Service officer) in Durg district, then Assistant Commissioner of Excise Department Korba Saurabh Bakshi, businessman Rajendra Jaiswal of M/s Welcome Distilleries and Bhupendra Pal Singh Bhatia of M/s Bhatia Wine Merchant in Bilaspur district, Naveen Kedia of M/s Chhattisgarh Distillery Limited in Kumhari area (Durg district) and M/s Prism Hologram and Security Private Limited of Vidhu Gupta in Greater Noida Uttar Pradesh and others,” the sources recalled.

 

The fresh case by the country’s top financial crimes agency will open wider and far-reaching avenues of investigation. “It is a shot in the arm, since the FIR registered by SEOIACB in the liquor scam under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120 B of Indian Penal Code (IPC), aligns well with the top court’s ruling in Pavana Dibbur case. The apex court in the aforesaid case had upheld that criminal conspiracy can be charged under PMLA only, when it specifically spells out to enlisted scheduled offence, including those under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and others with cross-border implications,” the sources explained. Earlier, on Monday, the SC gave a jolt to ED’s PMLA probe in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam underlining that the predicate offence wasn’t established and hence there cannot be any PoC. Sources, meanwhile, pointed out that the FIR of SEOIACB dated January 17 and registered under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code, now falls under the category of scheduled offence for ED to proceed.

 

“The fresh ECIR will act as a propellant booster for the central agency since it will now proceed with more deeper investigation in the liquor scam, based on the strides made by it during the past nearly one year,” the sources maintained. Notably, the Central agency had shared information about its findings in the liquor scam probe (Case No-ECIR/RPZO/11/2022/279) to SEOIACB on November 11, 2023, based on which the state’s anti-graft agency registered the FIR on January 17, 2024. A legal expert talking to The Hitavada asserted that ED often initiates prosecution under PMLA based on FIR (schedule or predicate offence) registered by CBI or any other law enforcement or state police agencies. “So in the case of liquor scam of Chhattisgarh, the January 17 FIR of SEOIACB gives all legal grounds to ED for launching a fresh and independent probe after filling ECIR,” he reiterated.