Raipur, Dec 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Raipur Zonal Office, has provisionally attached movable and immovable assets worth approximately Rs 38.21 crore belonging to former IAS officer Niranjan Das (then Excise Commissioner) and 30 other excise officials, a statement said.
Niranjan Das is alleged to have personally acquired over Rs 18 crore in proceeds of crime, including monthly bribes of Rs 50 lakh for enabling the fraud. Collectively, the 31 officials derived Rs 89.56 crore in illicit gains, said the statement of the agency.
The action, executed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, intensifies the probe into the multi-crore Chhattisgarh Liquor Scam, estimated to have caused a revised loss exceeding Rs 2,800 crore to the state exchequer.
The attached properties include immovable assets valued at Rs 21.65 crore, comprising 78 luxury bungalows, flats in premium complexes, commercial shops, and vast agricultural lands. Movable assets worth Rs 16.57 crore encompass 197 items such as high-value fixed deposits, bank balances, life insurance policies, equity shares, and mutual funds, it said.
ED investigations have exposed a criminal syndicate involving senior bureaucrats and political figures that allegedly hijacked the Chhattisgarh Excise Department.
Niranjan Das, alongside Arun Pati Tripathi (then MD of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited - CSMCL), is accused of orchestrating a parallel excise system bypassing official controls to generate illicit profits.
Central to the scam was the "Part-B" scheme; manufacturing and selling unaccounted country liquor through government shops using duplicate holograms and unregistered bottles.
This illicit liquor was transported directly from distilleries to retail outlets, evading state warehouses.
The operation allegedly involved active collusion from excise officials, who received fixed commissions of Rs 140 per case for permitting Part-B sales in their jurisdictions.
Source: IANS
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