Chhattisgarh: ED arrests Raipur mayor's brother in PMLA case linked to liquor 'syndicate'

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar's elder brother Anwar in a money laundering case linked to an alleged liquor distribution syndicate in Chhattisgarh that generated illegal funds worth about Rs 2,000 crore, official sources said.

Aijaz Dhebar, 47, is known as a powerful politician of the ruling Congress in the state.

Accompanied by a strong escort of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Anwar Dhebar was later produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Singh Rajput. The court sent him to four-day ED custody.

The agency told the court that Anwar was apprehended at 3:15 am ''while (he was) trying to run away through the back door'' of a city-based hotel which had no records of his entry and stay. The ED recovered two internet dongles and iPhones each and another phone from him.

Anwar Dhebar's lawyer Rahul Tyagi said the ED action against his client seemed to be politically motivated and they would move the Supreme Court.

The money laundering case stems from a May 2022 Income Tax department charge sheet filed against IAS officer Anil Tuteja and others before a Delhi court alleging that a criminal syndicate was operating in Chhattisgarh which was making ''illegal bribe collections by controlling the high-level management of important state departments and public sector undertakings''.

The syndicate in this case, the ED alleged in its remand note furnished before the court, comprised high-level state government officials, private persons and political executives of the state government.

It alleged Anwar Dhebar was the ''main collection agent and frontman of this syndicate... that had completely hijacked the administration of the excise department'' in Chhattisgarh.

The agency claimed its probe found that ''more than Rs 2,000 crore of corruption money was generated by this syndicate'' and that Anwar Dhebar was ''responsible for collection of every rupee of these proceeds of crime and he alone has the complete account of the utilisation of the proceeds of crime''.

The agency told the court that it raided Anwar Dhebar's house in Raipur on March 28 but he slipped out from a secret door and did not join the investigation despite summons being issued to him six times.

It claimed Anwar Dhebar ''was not the ultimate beneficiary of all the proceeds of crime generated in this case''.

''He is only a private person who is not holding any position in the government and just by using his proximity to the Mayor of Raipur (younger brother Aijaz Dhebar) and the ruling political party, he was willing to get his way with the bureaucrats.

''The entire excise machinery was subservient to him. This clearly shows that he drew his powers from the state politicians,'' the ED alleged.

Seeking his custodial interrogation, the agency told the court that as it is ''suspected that he is very close to various politicians and is an influential person in the society, it is very much possible that by using his power and clout, he will try to influence the witnesses and alter the documents in records''.

''Huge... corruption was happening in the excise department and hundreds of crores of cash was being collected from every possible point of access in a distributed hierarchical manner.

''At each stage, a small percentage was appropriated by the actors... as their remuneration and the remaining funds were transmitted to Anwar Dhebar,'' it claimed.

''The syndicate, after keeping its cut, passed on the final loot for the benefit of the political executives and for electioneering,'' the ED note alleged.

The agency said it questioned a number of people like the main distillers and suppliers involved in the manufacturing of country liquor and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) in Chhattisgarh, FL-10A licence holders, glass bottle and hologram makers, shopkeepers, cash collection agents and associates of Anwar Dhebar during and after the raids it conducted in March.

''It is clear that massive corruption has occurred in the excise department of Chhattisgarh since 2019... by the criminal syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar.

''They have systematically altered the liquor policy as per their whims and fancies and extorted maximum personal benefit for themselves,'' the ED claimed.

It said the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) was created in 2017 for the sale and distribution of liquor in the state but ''with a change in the state government... it became a tool in the hands of the syndicate which used it to enforce a parallel excise department''.

It alleged all contracts for the works of CSMCL were allegedly given to entities linked to the syndicate.

The ED alleged that the syndicate collected ''huge commission'' from the sale of accounted liquor and the ''majority'' of this fund was ''given to Anwar Dhebar and he shared the majority of it with a political party''.

The syndicate also ''manufactured and sold'' illicit liquor in the state entirely through cash transactions with no income tax or excise duty being paid, it alleged.

''The entire sale consideration was siphoned off with each person getting their share including distiller, transporter, hologram maker, bottle maker, excise department officials and their higher echelons, Anwar Dhebar, senior IAS officers and politicians.

''The ED investigation has found that between the years 2019 and 2022, this kind of illegal sale was almost 30-40 per cent of the total sales of liquor in the state,'' the agency claimed.

It alleged that the commission generated through this illegal sale of liquor was shared ''as per the directions from the highest political executives of the state''.