Chhattisgarh liquor "scam": SC says it may quash ED case against former IAS officer, son

The Supreme Court said on Friday it may quash a money laundering case against former IAS officer Anil Tuteja and his son Yash in the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, saying there were no proceeds of crime.We have gone through the ECIR Enforcement Case Information Report and the FIR lodged in the case.

The Supreme Court said on Friday it may quash a money laundering case against former IAS officer Anil Tuteja and his son Yash in the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, saying there were no proceeds of crime.

“We have gone through the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) and the FIR lodged in the case. We find that there is no predicate offence and there are no proceeds of crime. If there is no proceeds of crime, then there is no money laundering. We will quash this complaint,'' a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who appeared for the Enforcement Directorate. Raju said there is enough material with the probe agency and, if the court is inclined to quash the ECIR, then the ED be given liberty to lodge a fresh complaint and proceed with the case. ''Several orders were passed by the court in the matter like 'stay hand in all manner' and not proceed against the accused. These orders should be vacated,'' Raju urged the court. The bench said it will quash the present complaint and record the statement that the agency wants to lodge a fresh complaint by the law. Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for the father-son duo, said there are other co-accused in the case and the complaint against them should also be quashed. The bench told the advocate that if named in the instant complaint, the other co-accused can be granted relief. It not, they will have to take their own legal recourse. When the court asked Raju about whether the co-accused have been named in the instant complaint, the government's law officer sought time to respond.

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing on April 8. In the prosecution complaint, the ED's version of a chargesheet, filed in the special PMLA court, the anti-money laundering agency has said that former IAS officer Anil Tuteja is ''kingpin'' of the syndicate involved in illegal supply of liquor in Chhattisgarh. On January 8, the top court had asked the ED to produce the ECIR and the FIR based on which the probe agency has lodged the complaint in the alleged liquor scam case. It had said the Tutejas have in their writ petition challenged Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It said the challenge cannot be considered in view of the 2022 apex court verdict which upheld the ED's power to search, seize and arrest. Section 50 gives ED the power to summon people. The top court had said that the other prayer deals with the challenge to the ECIR, the ED's equivalent of an FIR. On July 18, 2023, the top court had asked the ED to ''stay their hand in all manner'' in the case and ordered that no coercive action be taken against the father-son duo.

The then Congress government in Chhattisgarh had alleged in the top court that the probe agency was ''running amok'' and was trying to implicate then chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money laundering case linked to the alleged liquor scam.

It had alleged that the officers of the state were harassed by the probe agency and were being told to give details of their properties, which were being attached.

The Congress government had alleged that 52 state excise department officials had complained that the ED was threatening them and their family members with arrest.

The ED has claimed the alleged scam was perpetrated by a syndicate of high-level state government officials, private persons and political executives that generated more than Rs 2,000 crore in tainted money in 2019-22.

The money laundering case stems from a 2022 income tax department charge sheet filed in a court in Delhi.

The federal agency had alleged that bribes were collected from distillers in the state on a per liquor case basis procured from the CSMCL (state body for purchase and sale of liquor) and country liquor was being sold off-the-books.

According to the ED, bribes were taken from distillers to allow them to form a cartel and have a fixed market share.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)