Chhattisgarh liquor scam: Accused Nitesh Purohit withdraws his petition from Supreme Court

ED arrested Nitesh Purohit on May 11 in the matter and now he is under judicial custody.

New Delhi: Nitesh Purohit on Wednesday withdrew his petition relating to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam from the Supreme Court.
A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Prashant Kumar Mishra granted permission to Purohit to withdraw his petition.

ED arrested Nitesh Purohit on May 11 in the matter and now he is under judicial custody.

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Meanwhile, the bench listed the plea by Amit Singh, who claimed that he has faced custodial torture, in the second week of August.

The top court observed on Tuesday, “These days there is a trend going on that various petitions filed before the top court challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of PMLA which has been decided finally, then seek consequential relief and bypassing other forums which are open to petitioners.” The observation had come on Tuesday when various petitioners sought to withdraw petitions challenging money laundering cases relating to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam and certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The top court had said despite the Vijay Madanlal judgment passed by the Supreme Court last year, there is a trend prevailing in writ petitions filed before this court under Article 32 challenging the Constitutional validity of certain provisions of PMLA which has been decided finally and then seek consequential relief. The top court had remarked that these reliefs are bypassing other forums which are open to petitioners.

Various petitions challenging money laundering cases relating to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam and certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act were withdrawn from Supreme Court on Tuesday. The court however had granted liberty to petitioners to seek remedies available as per law in other appropriate forums.

Chattisgarh’s Excise official Niranjan Das and various others including Karishma Dhebar, Anwar Dhebar and Pinki Singh had approached Supreme Court. They had challenged certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The petitioner had also sought quashing of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in liquor irregularities matter in Chhattisgarh.

ED is conducting an investigation into the liquor scam which ran between 2019 to 2022 in which corruption was done in multiple ways. The bribe was collected from the distillers per each case of liquor procured from them by the CSMCL, they alleged.

The ED investigation has revealed that Arun Pati Tripathi through his direct actions at the insistence of Anwar Dhebar, corrupted the entire liquor system of Chhattisgarh to maximize corruption in the department. He made policy changes in conspiracy with his other colleagues and gave tenders to associates of Anwar Dhebar so that maximum benefits could be taken, it further stated.

“Despite being a senior ITS Officer and MD of CSMCL, he went against the ethos of the functioning of any State Excise Department and used the State-run shops to sell unaccounted kacha liquor,” ED has alleged.

ED alleged that his complicit actions resulted in massive losses to the state exchequer and filled the pockets of the beneficiaries of the Liquor Syndicate with more than Rs 2000 Crore in illegal proceeds of crime. The accused also received a substantial share in this loot.
Thus, the very objective of CSMCL to increase the state’s revenue and to provide quality controlled liquor to citizens was violated by him for his personal illegal gains, read the official statement.

ED has conducted consequential search operations at locations in Raipur, Bhilai and Mumbai and the searches have resulted in the discovery of 53 acres of land in Naya Raipur having a book value of Rs 21.60 crore acquired by Anwar Dhebar by using proceeds of crime in the name of a JV.

This property was purchased through a maze of transactions in the name of an associate by routing proceeds of crime acquired from an FL-10A licensee. During recent search proceedings, ED has seized cash worth Rs 20 lacs and multiple incriminating documents, mentioned the official statement.

In searches in Mumbai, unaccounted investments worth around Rs 1 Crore, with a share trading firm in the name of Arvind Singh and Pinki Singh w/o Arvind Singh were found and the same have been frozen under PMLA.

Earlier, ED had frozen Fixed Deposits worth Rs 27.5 Crore from Trilok Singh Dhillon. Earlier, ED had seized jewellery worth Rs 28 Crore from the house of a Country Liquor Distiller.