Rtd IAS officer Niranjan Das held in Rs 3200 crore C’garh liquor scam

 

 

The State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB) on Thursday arrested retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Niranjan Das in connection with the multi-crore Chhattisgarh liquor scam. Das, who served as Excise Commissioner during the previous Congress government, has been named a central conspirator in facilitating illegal liquor sales, policy distortions, and syndicate-backed tender frauds. SEOIACB officials privy to the probe stated that Das was arrested under Crime No. 04/2024 registered for offences under Sections 7 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018), and Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

 

The charges include abuse of official position, financial misconduct, and direct complicity in policy and procedural manipulation for illicit gain. The bureau’s internal quantification pegs the scam at Rs 2,563 crore, with Part-A involving Rs 319.32 crore, Part-B Rs 2,174.67 crore, and Part-C Rs 70 crore. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has linked this to the broader Rs 3,200 crore laundering trail under its separate probe. Das allegedly worked closely with former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, then Special Secretary (Excise) Arunpati Tripathi, and businessman Anwar Dhebar (brother of ex-Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar), in running a powerful excise syndicate that bled the state’s revenue system. According to SEOIACB’s findings, irregularities included fixing commissions on liquor sales, overproduction of alcohol from distilleries, illegal collection from foreign liquor brands, and the use of counterfeit holograms to legitimise spurious bottles.

 

The chargesheet also names Noida-based Prism Holography Security Films and its owner Vidhu Gupta. Investigators found that Das, Tripathi, and Tuteja manipulated eligibility conditions to award a tampered tender to the firm, which lacked basic technical qualifications. Fake holograms were printed and supplied, and an eight-paise commission per label was allegedly pocketed by the accused, aiding illegal alcohol supply at scale. In a parallel thread, Das is also accused of exporting the Chhattisgarh model of excise corruption to neighbouring Jharkhand. SEOIACB records detail a secret meeting in January 2022, where Das, Dhebar, and Tripathi met Jharkhand officials to push policy changes that enabled similar illegal profiteering, causing substantial losses to Jharkhand’s state exchequer. After retiring, Das was controversially reappointed as Excise Commissioner on contract by the Congress government in February 2023, further emboldening the network.

 

The SEOIACB had raided his premises in early 2024 and named him in its 5,000-page chargesheet filed in July. This chargesheet cited roles of 29 Excise Department officials, all of whom have since been suspended. “A coordinated legal strategy is now underway. Niranjan Das’s custodial interrogation will help uncover the deeper political and financial enablers of the scam. His arrest is a critical turning point in this high-value investigation spanning two states and multiple agencies,” said a senior official of the state’s anti-graft agency directly involved in the legal proceedings.