ED arrests retired IAS officer in Chhattisgarh liquor scam

ED has arrested retired Chhattisgarh IAS officer Anil Tuteja in liquor 'scam' linked money laundering case, PTI news agency reported.

ED had detained the 2003 batch officer from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW)/Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) office in Raipur on Saturday where the bureaucrat and his son Yash Tuteja had gone to record their statement in the same case.

The IAS officer was later taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is expected to be produced before a magistrate seeking his remand.

Tuteja retired from service last year.

The federal agency had filed a fresh money laundering case in the alleged liquor scam case after the Supreme Court recently quashed its earlier FIR that was based on an Income Tax Department complaint.

The agency shared details of its probe in the case with the state EOW/ACB seeking registration of an FIR and once they filed an FIR, the ED registered a new money laundering case taking cognisance of that complaint.

In July last year, the ED submitted a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) in the alleged liquor scam case in a PMLA court in Raipur in which it claimed ₹2,161 crore of corruption money was generated in the alleged 'liquor scam' that began in 2019 in Chhattisgarh and the amount should have gone to the state exchequer.

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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 claimed.

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.