New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Raipur Zonal Office has arrested Ramgopal Agrawal in connection with the Chhattisgarh liquor scam under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, officials said on Wednesday.
Agrawal, who was lodged as an under trial in the Raipur Central Jail, was arrested on August 11 under Section 19 of the PMLA and produced before the Special PMLA Court in Raipur.
The court remanded him to ED custody for seven days, until August 18. He was the then Treasurer of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, an ED press note said.
The ED initiated its investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing/Anti-Corruption Bureau in Raipur and subsequent charge sheets filed before the Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act) in Raipur.
The case alleges criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption in the excise administration of Chhattisgarh during the period 2019 to 2023.
According to the ED, a syndicate comprising Anil Tuteja (Retired IAS), Anwar Dhebar and Arun Pati Tripathi (ITS) orchestrated a large-scale scam in the state’s liquor trade.
The syndicate allegedly generated proceeds of crime amounting to around Rs 3,000 crore through illegal commission on accounted liquor sales, sale of unaccounted country liquor, annual commission collected from distillers, and commission collected from foreign liquor companies against the grant of FL-10A licences, it said.
Investigation also revealed that a substantial part of these proceeds of crime, generated in cash, was delivered to Ramgopal Agrawal in his capacity as the then Treasurer of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
Statements recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA from persons who handled and moved the cash indicated that the money was delivered at Agrawal’s instance through syndicate handlers at Rajiv Bhawan in Raipur, which was the then office of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
Agrawal failed to appear in response to four summons issued under Section 50 of the PMLA.
In his subsequent statement, he gave evasive replies.
The ED has said that further investigation in the case is underway.
–IANS
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