A liquor syndicate led by businessman Anwar Dhebar and retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja manipulated the state’s excise system to generate illegal proceeds exceeding ₹2,883 crore, according to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s son Chaitanya Baghel has already been charged in the case.Also Read I ED likely to register case in 10 days in SP-era livestock recruitment scamRepatriation from the UAE“Vikas Agrawal, who is an important link in the Chhattisgarh liquor syndicate’s financial operations, was arrested in Dubai in the third week of October.
He is in the custody of the UAE authorities right now. His repatriation has also been almost approved by the UAE authorities and we believe that he would very soon be brought to India after completing all the formalities,” said one of the officials cited above, adding that he was absconding since sometime in 2023.In a statement issued on June 1 this year, while attaching assets worth ₹1,000 crore in the case, ED said that “Vikas Agrawal functioned as the ground-level financial manager of the syndicate, collecting commissions from distilleries and FL-10A (foreign liquor) licensees and routing funds directly to Anwar Dhebar”.According to ED, the liquor syndicate operated through four channels.
Under Part A, commissions were allegedly collected from distilleries by artificially inflating the price of liquor procured by the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited, the state-run liquor procurement and distribution agency. Under Part B, unaccounted country liquor was allegedly manufactured and sold through government liquor shops using duplicate holograms, with the proceeds bypassing the state exchequer.
In Part C, annual commissions from distilleries were taken to secure fixed market shares, while the fourth mechanism involved extracting commissions from foreign liquor manufacturers through the FL-10A licensing system.ED’s probe has revealed that the syndicate’s proceeds of crime were distributed among political executives, bureaucrats and private beneficiaries, a second official said.So far, 85 people have been named as accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in six charge sheets. Former Chhattisgarh Congress treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal and former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma have also been named in the charge sheets.
The agency has also seized or attached assets worth more than ₹600 crore in the case as of now.Also Read I ₹181 crore Himachal Pradesh scholarship scam: Court flags 332 missing pages in ED bribery case"> ₹181 crore Himachal Pradesh scholarship scam: Court flags 332 missing pages in ED bribery caseED has been probing the alleged liquor irregularities in Chhattisgarh since 2022 but its previous probe was quashed by the Supreme Court on April 8, 2024 as it was based on an income-tax complaint and didn’t form part of the scheduled offence, a requirement for it to proceed with money laundering probes.However, a day later, on April 9, 2024, ED filed a fresh case in the matter based on a FIR filed by Chhattisgarh police on January 17, 2024.Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape.
Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption.
He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence.
Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings.
He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship.
He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism.
Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More