New Delhi [India], August 11 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Chhattisgarh Congress leader Ramgopal Agrawal as part of its money laundering probe into the alleged liquor scam in the state, officials said on Tuesday.
ED’s Raipur zonal office arrested Agrawal following his questioning in connection with the case, marking a major escalation in its ongoing money laundering probe.
The move comes nearly two months after the ED attached assets worth over Rs 1,000 crore in connection with the case. The attachment was done following three Provisional Attachment Orders (PAOs) issued on May 28 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, targeting properties with a deed value of around Rs 200 crore and an estimated market value exceeding Rs 1,000 crore.
ED said the investigation stems from an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing and Anti-Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB), Raipur.
According to the agency, a liquor syndicate led by “businessman Anwar Dhebar and former IAS officer Anil Tuteja allegedly manipulated the state’s excise system between 2019 and 2023.”
The ED claims the network generated proceeds of crime amounting to over Rs 2,883 crore through inflated liquor procurement rates, illegal production of unaccounted liquor, and commissions extracted via FL-10A licences granted to select entities.
The first attachment order pertains to assets linked to Vikas Agrawal and Anwar Dhebar.
Investigators allege that Agrawal acted as a key financial handler, collecting commissions from distilleries and licence holders and routing the funds to Dhebar.
Properties held in the names of Agrawal’s family members have been attached as equivalent to his alleged illicit earnings.
The ED has also attached several benami properties linked to Dhebar, including plots in Dhebar City Homes in Raipur and multiple land parcels held through shell firms such as Shining Star Buildcon, Moonlight Real Estate, Swarn Infrabuild, and Jai Gurudev Infrastructure. The total value of assets under this attachment is estimated at Rs 30 crore.
In the second attachment, the ED has targeted a premium hotel property–Hotel Westinn Goa, located in Anjuna, North Goa. The property is registered under Pacifica Hotels India Private Limited, whose directors include Rahul Agrawal and Vijay Kumar Agrawal.
The agency alleges that the hotel was acquired entirely using proceeds of crime worth approximately Rs 110 crore, paid in unaccounted cash allegedly sourced from the liquor scam and transported at the behest of Chaitanya Baghel.
The third attachment involves financial assets, including bank accounts, shares, and mutual funds belonging to three FL-10A licensee companies–Om Sai Beverages Pvt Ltd, Dishita Ventures Pvt Ltd, and Nexgen Power Engitech Pvt Ltd.
According to the ED, these firms were coerced into transferring 50-60 per cent of their profits to the syndicate, amounting to nearly Rs 51 crore.
In a related development, the ED has filed its sixth supplementary prosecution complaint before a special PMLA court in Raipur, naming four additional accused Vijay Bhatia, T Bhuneshwar Rao, Probir Sharma, and Nikhil Chandrakar.
Investigators allege that Bhatia held a 52.5 per cent benami stake in Om Sai Beverages under coercion, while Sharma was involved in physically transporting large amounts of cash linked to the scam. (ANI)
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