Robbery on public earnings! Assets worth crores of 31 officers including former IAS attached in Chhattisgarh liquor scam, secret of ‘Part-B’ scheme revealed

Chhattisgarh The much talked about liquor scam has once again exposed the truth of the system. The same officers who were responsible for safeguarding the state’s revenue were allegedly found involved in illegal earnings worth crores. In the latest action of the Enforcement Directorate, assets worth crores of rupees of 31 excise officers including former IAS officer have been attached.

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The ‘Part-B’ scheme revealed in the investigation has also exposed how a parallel system was created within the government system to rob the public of their earnings.

ED action on property worth crores

ED has attached movable and immovable properties worth about Rs 38.21 crore in this case. These include luxurious bungalows, premium flats, commercial shops and large-scale agricultural land. Along with this, money deposited in bank accounts, fixed deposits, investments like insurance policies, shares and mutual funds have also been confiscated. This action has been taken by ED’s Raipur zonal unit under the Money Laundering Act.

‘Parallel System’ of Excise Department

Investigation revealed that a parallel system had been set up within the Excise Department itself. The command of this network is said to be in the hands of Niranjan Das and the then CSMCL MD Arunpati Tripathi. It is alleged that a path for illegal earning was created by bypassing government control, which caused huge loss to the state.

‘Part-B’ Scheme: The game of illicit liquor

According to the ED, the center of the scam was a secret scheme named ‘Part-B’. Under this, country liquor was made and sold without any record. Duplicate holograms, unaccounted bottles and supply directly from the distillery to the shops – government warehouses were deliberately ignored in this entire process. All this happened with the connivance of the officials.

Commission on every case, huge bribe every month

Investigation revealed that excise officials used to get fixed commission on every case. Niranjan Das alone is accused of making illegal income of more than Rs 18 crore from this scam and taking bribe of about Rs 50 lakh every month. Overall, 31 officials earned illegal money amounting to approximately Rs 89.56 crore.

Investigation continues, layers still to be revealed

This investigation was started on the basis of FIR of Anti Corruption Bureau and Economic Offenses Wing. ED says that the scam caused a loss of thousands of crores to the state exchequer. At present the investigation is going on and more big revelations are expected in the coming days.