Political figures, bureaucrats formed syndicate to perpetrate Chhattisgarh liquor ‘scam’: ED

New Delhi: The ED on Tuesday said it has attached fresh assets worth more than Rs 100 crore of former Chhattisgarh excise commissioner Niranjan Das, 30 other excise officials and some major distilleries as part of its investigation into an alleged Rs 2,800-crore liquor scam in the state during the previous Congress government.

The Enforcement Directorate alleged that a “criminal” syndicate, involving senior bureaucrats and political figures of the state, “completely hijacked” the Chhattisgarh excise department between 2019 and 2023.

The provisionally attached assets include 78 properties like luxury bungalows, flats in premium complexes, commercial shop spaces and agricultural lands apart from 197 investments -- fixed deposits (FDs), balances in multiple bank accounts, life insurance policies and a diverse portfolio of equity shares and mutual funds, the ED said.

These assets worth a total Rs 38.21 crore belong to Das, an IAS officer, and 30 other excise officials, the federal probe agency

said in a statement.

“This attachment highlights the deep-rooted complicity of the very officials tasked with protecting state revenue,” the statement added.

The other set of properties, worth Rs 68.16 crore, belongs to three major Chhattisgarh-based distilleries named Chhattisgarh Distilleries Ltd., Bhatia Wine Merchants Pvt. Ltd., and Welcome Distilleries Pvt Ltd., it said.

Das and Arun Pati Tripathi (then MD of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited) “spearheaded” a “parallel” excise system that

“bypassed” state controls to generate massive illegal earnings, it claimed.