LIQUOR SCAM ED arrests ex-CM Baghel’s son Chaitanya

 

 

 

IN A significant escalation of its probe into the Rs 3,200 crore Chhattisgarh liquor scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday morning arrested Chaitanya Baghel alias Bittu, son of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. The arrest comes 72 hours after ED-RPZO’s multistate search operations, covering five premises in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, and Goa. Soon after his arrest, Chaitanya Baghel was produced in the special PMLA court, which granted the ED his five-day custodial remand. He will remain in ED custody till July 22 and will be produced again before the court on the same day.

 

According to officials, the interrogation will cover several key leads linked to shell transactions, benami routes, and laundering trails unearthed during the three-state search operations conducted earlier this week. According to ED officials, Chaitanya Baghel was arrested under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The case is being investigated under Section 3 of PMLA, and upon filing of the Prosecution Complaint, the agency will seek punishment under Section 4. ED’s probe documents, exclusively accessed by ‘The Hitavada’, claims the scam was orchestrated between 2019 and 2023 by a liquor syndicate led by retired IAS officer Vivek Dhand, former IAS Anil Tuteja and ITS Arun Pati Tripathi, businessman and former Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar’s elder brother Anwar Dhebar, and excise officials.

 

The syndicate created a parallel excise operation, collecting illegal commissions from distillers and running duplicate liquor sales through fake holograms. Notably, the scam was structured in three layers-Part A involved Rs 496 crore collected as illegal commissions from distillers, Part B generated Rs 2,174 crore through the sale of unaccounted “kacha” liquor with duplicate holograms, and Part C accounted for Rs 70 crore paid directly to bureaucrats and politicians to ensure system protection. The State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) has pegged political payments in the scam at Rs 1,392 crore, citing a broader payout network beyond these direct figures. ED said Chaitanya Baghel acted as one of the key handlers of these funds. Laxmi Narayan Bansal alias Pappu, in his Section 50 statement under PMLA, admitted to managing over Rs 1,000 crore in cash, routed through Baghel. Bansal said Baghel directed Rs 80-100 crore deliveries to KK Srivastava and channelled large sums through associates like Ram Gopal Agarwal. The ED flagged a Rs 5 crore payment from Saheli Jewellers to M/s Baghel Developers, linked to Chaitanya Baghel. ED officials said this was not a legitimate loan but a laundering channel for cash proceeds from the scam. Of this, Rs 4.5 crore remains unpaid with no interest charged.

 

Another Rs 5 crore was received from Trilok Singh Dhillon via M/s Dhillon City Mall Pvt Ltd and M/s Dhillon Drinks. Flats were purchased in the name of Dhillon’s 19 employees to obscure the transactions. Chaitanya Baghel’s real estate venture, the Vitthal Green Project, was a primary channel for laundering the proceeds. ED claims project costs were under-invoiced-actual expenses were Rs 13-15 crore, while records show only Rs 7.14 crore. ED cited consultant Rajendra Jain (M/s Avam Consultants), who confirmed the gap. Over Rs 4.2 crore was paid in cash to M/s Shivam Construction for the project. ED officials also said the FL10A license system for foreign liquor sales was rigged. Licenses were granted to companies linked to the syndicate, including M/s Nexgen Power Engitech Pvt Ltd, M/s Om Sai Beverage Pvt Ltd, and M/s Dishita Ventures Pvt Ltd. The commission sharing was fixed: 60% to the syndicate, 40% to license holders.

 

According to ED, the operation generated unaccounted money that funded political beneficiaries during the tenure of the previous Congress government. The agency claims substantial proceeds were routed to individuals linked to the Indian National Congress (INC), including family-linked entities of political figures. Anwar Dhebar’s chats with Nitesh Purohit revealed Rs 136 crore was collected in just three months. ED officials confirmed that Chaitanya Baghel has been booked under Sections 3 and 4 of PMLA for money laundering, while his arrest was effected under Section 19. The custodial interrogation is being conducted under Sections 50 and 65 of PMLA. ED is also relying on Section 187(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, for extended remand procedures, considering the volume of digital and documentary evidence collected. “Chaitanya Baghel adopted an evasive and non-cooperative stance during questioning. He possesses exclusive knowledge of the money laundering channels and has concealed critical information. We have reasons to believe he has committed the offence of money laundering,” an ED official said. The ED is now set to confront Chaitanya Baghel with digital evidence, statements of witnesses, and financial trails during the remaining period of custodial interrogation