Raipur (Chhattisgarh): The Chhattisgarh Economic Offenses Investigation Bureau (EOW) has intensified its action after the Supreme Court cancelled the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case in the alleged liquor scam of Rs 2,000 crore.
On Thursday, EOW arrested Arun Pati Tripathi, the then Special Secretary of the Excise Department and MD of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation. Arun Pati had got bail from the High Court just two months ago in February after spending 9 months in jail. The ED had arrested him on May 12 last year.
The legal sources said that EOW has arrested him from Bihar on Thursday. A team of the Bureau had been keeping him under continuous surveillance since he came out on bail.
AP Tripathi's arrest is the third arrest made by EOW in the alleged liquor scam. Earlier, the Bureau team had arrested Arvind Singh as soon as he came out of jail and businessman Anwar Dhebar the next day.
At present, Arvind Singh and Anwar Dhebar are in remand, who are to be presented in the court on Friday. There is a possibility that the Bureau will also present Tripathi in the court on Friday and then get the remand of all three together. EOW has arrested AP Tripathi at a time when the ED case has been rejected by the Supreme Court whereas the EOW had registered the case itself based on the ED report. Now the question is being raised as to what are the major reasons behind the action of EOW, in which the Bureau team is engaged in swift action.
On Thursday itself, the Bureau team raided the premises of Pappu Bansal and Vijay Bhatia in Khursipar and Nehru Nagar areas of Bhilai. EOW has also made both of them accused in its FIR.
EOW conducts raids at 21 places
The Chhattisgarh Economic Offence Wing-Anti Corruption Bureau jointly on Thursday conducted raids at 24 places across the state for collection of evidence in the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam. The raid was conducted at 9 places at Raipur, Durg-Bhilai-07, Rajnandgaon -04 and Bilaspur -04. The officials have recovered Rs 19 lakh cash, electronic equipment like laptop, pen-drive, bank statements, documents related to assets, jewellery worth crores, crores of investment in banks along with other vital documents. The documents include general investment and layering through shell companies, unsecured loans and investments.
