Chhattisgarh liquor 'scam': Chief Minister Baghel accuses Centre and ED of corruption following SC ruling

Chhattisgarh liquor 'scam': SC ruling has exposed Centre and ED, claims Baghel

Senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel on Monday said the Supreme Court's decision in connection with the alleged liquor scam in Chhattisgarh had exposed the Centre for using the Enforcement Directorate to target opposition parties.

The apex court earlier in the day quashed the money laundering case against former IAS officer Anil Tuteja and his son Yash in the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam saying there were no proceeds of crime.

In a a post on X, Baghel said the commitment of agencies like the ED should be towards the Constitution and not towards any political party.

''Shameful political misuse of ED has been proved and the Modi government has been exposed. Today's decision of the Supreme Court has proved that at the behest of BJP, the ED has been conspiring to defame the opposition parties by making every case a case of money laundering,'' Baghel said on X.

The ED registered a case in the alleged liquor scam just before the 2023 Assembly polls to defame the previous Congress government and give a political weapon to the BJP, Baghel alleged.

It has become clear from the SC ruling that BJP was only spreading lies, he added.

The conspiracy of the BJP-led Centre to defame its political opponents by misusing democratic institutions has been unearthed and the public will see that cases lodged to defame the Congress will also be quashed in a similar manner, the former chief minister said.

In July last year, the ED had submitted a prosecution complaint (charge-sheet) in the alleged liquor scam case in a PMLA court in Raipur in which it claimed Rs 2161 crore of corruption money generated in the alleged 'liquor scam' that began in 2019 in Chhattisgarh and the amount should have gone to the state exchequer.

A criminal syndicate led by Anil Tuteja and businessman Anwar Dhebar (brother of Congress leader and Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar) had turned these objectives upside down, the ED had claimed.

This syndicate comprises senior bureaucrats of state, politicians, their associates and officials of the excise department, it had said.

Early this year, Chhattisgarh's Economic Offence Wing/Anti-Corruption Bureau also registered a case in the alleged liquor scam against 70 persons, including Congress leaders, and companies based on a report of the ED.

The ACB/EOW last week arrested Anwar Dhebar and Arvind Singh in connection with the alleged scam.

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