Chhattisgarh: ED arrests retired IAS officer Tuteja in liquor ‘scam’ case

PTI, Apr 21, 2024, 9:15 AM IST

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested retired Chhattisgarh IAS officer Anil Tuteja in connection with an alleged liquor scam linked money laundering case in the state, official sources said on Sunday.

The federal agency 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, the sources said.

The officer retired from service last year.

The ED 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 a FIR and once they filed a FIR, the ED registered a new money laundering case taking cognisance of that complaint.

Money was ”illegally” collected from ”every” bottle of liquor sold in Chhattisgarh and evidence of ”unprecedented” corruption and money laundering of Rs 2,000 crore generated by an alcohol syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor Anwar Dhebar, has been unearthed, the ED had alleged.