In a sharp escalation of the liquor scam investigation, the Enforcement Directorate Raipur Zonal Office (ED-RPZO) has summoned thirty excise officials under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after they were named in a fresh chargesheet filed by the State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB). The summons, issued last week, have so far been ignored by the officers despite compelling evidence cited by both the state’s anti-graft body and the central agency. ED-RPZO insiders told ‘The Hitavada’ that failure to comply with the summons may invite coercive measures. “If these officials continue to evade despite the backdrop of the chargesheet and our probe, we will be compelled to bring them in,” a senior official disclosed, requesting anonymity.

 

The SEOIACB’s fourth supplementary chargesheet, filed on July 7 before a special court in Raipur, named all thirty officers including seven who have retired. The list features one Additional Commissioner of Excise Ashish Shrivastav; five Deputy Commissioners - Animesh Netam, Vijay Sen Sharma, Arvind Kumar Patle, Neetu Notani Thakur, and Nobar Singh Thakur; fourteen Assistant Commissioners -Pramod Kumar Netam, Ramakrishna Mishra, Vikas Kumar Goswami, Naveen Pratap Singh Tomar, Saurabh Bakshi, Dinkar Vasnik, Sonal Netam, Prakash Pal, Alekh Ram Sidar, Ashish Kosam, and Rajesh Jaiswal, along with retired Assistant Commisioners G.S. Nuruti, Vedram Lahare and L.L. Dhruv; seven District Excise Officers (DEOs)-Iqbal Khan, Mohit Kumar Jaiswal, and Garipal Singh Darda, alongside retired DEOs A.K. Singh, J.R. Mandavi, Devlal Vaidh, and A.K. Anant; and finally two Assistant District Excise Officers - Janardan Kaurav and Nitin Khanduja, and one Assistant District Excise Officer -Manjushree Kasar. Investigators have established that between 2019 and 2023, these officers were posted across fifteen districts-excluding Bastar and Surguja where country liquor dominated consumption-where unaccounted duty-paid liquor was allegedly sold in parallel to official stocks.

 

Coordination at the state level ensured smooth execution of this illegal channel, generating colossal revenues. Initially pegged at Rs 2,161 crore, the scam has now been re-estimated at Rs 3,200 crore following a deeper analysis. SEOIACB’s computation places Part-A at Rs 319.32 crore, Part-B at Rs 2,174.67 crore, and Part-C at Rs 70 crore-aggregating to Rs 2,563 crore, while ED’s money-laundering probe situates these figures within the broader estimate. The cumulative action so far includes five chargesheets and thirteen arrests. Among those behind bars are Congress MLA and former Excise Minister Kawasi Lakhma, ex-IAS officer Anil Tuteja, businessman Anwar Dhebar, and Special Secretary (Excise) Arunpati Tripathi. A major development came earlier this month when SEOIACB arrested former Excise Comm and IAS officer Niranjan Das. Das was booked under Sections 7 and 12 of the amended Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), along with sections of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code. As department head, Das is accused of tailoring policies, allowing illegal sales through government outlets, manipulating tenders and transfers, and facilitating duplicate holograms for illicit gains. Investigators allege Das conspired with Tuteja, Tripathi, and Dhebar to create a parallel structure that systematically looted excise revenues.

 

He is also linked to attempts at replicating the Chhattisgarh model of corruption in Jharkhand. In January 2022, Das reportedly joined a meeting with state officials there, pushing for policy tweaks that led to heavy losses. His post-retirement contractual reappointment as Excise Commissioner in February 2023 by the then Congress-led government is now under scrutiny. According to senior officials associated with both ED and SEOIACB, the latest summons mark “a critical stage” in tightening the noose around the excise establishment, pointing to a network that allegedly institutionalised corruption on an unprecedented scale.