EOW accelerates action following Supreme Court’s dismissal of Rs 2,000 Crore alleged liquor scam case
Raipur: After the dismissal of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case by the Supreme Court, the State Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has intensified its actions. Chhattisgarh EOW has arrested Arun Pati Tripathi, former Special Secretary of the Excise Department, and former Managing Director of the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation, in connection with the alleged Rs 2000 crore liquor scam. Arun Pati, who was granted bail by the High Court two months ago after spending nine months in jail since February, was arrested by the EOW last year on May 12. According to information received by The Rural Press, he has now been arrested from Bihar. The arrest is said to have taken place on Thursday. Since his release on bail, a team from the Bureau had been keeping him under surveillance.
In this case, the arrest made by the EOW on behalf of the ED marks the third arrest, with AP Tripathi being the third. Previously, immediately upon their release from prison, Arvind Singh and the next day businessman Anwar Dhebar were arrested by the Bureau’s team. Currently, Arvind Singh and Anwar Dhebar are in remand custody of the ED, who are to be presented in court on Friday. It is likely that the Bureau will also present Tripathi in court on Friday and then obtain remand custody for all three together. The EOW has arrested AP Tripathi at a time when the Supreme Court has dismissed the ED case. While the case of the EOW was based on the report of the ED, now questions are being raised about the reasons behind the EOW’s action, with the Bureau’s team vigorously pursuing the matter. On Thursday, the Bureau’s team conducted raids at the addresses of Pappu Bansal and Vijay Bhatia in Khursipar and Nehru Nagar areas of Bhilai. Both have also been named as accused in the EOW’s FIR.
On the other hand, following the blow from the Supreme Court, there is discussion about filing a new Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) by the ED. The ED will soon register a new ECIR, which will contain facts that can establish the liquor scam in court. For this, the ED can also use the FIR of the EOW as a basis, but the likelihood of this is quite low, as the FIR of the EOW is based on the same report of the ED that has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had ordered the investigating agencies to refrain from any action against the accused in every possible way, especially considering the order of the apex court dated July 18, 2023, in which the investigating agencies were instructed to “restrain themselves in every possible way.” It was also said that no punitive action should be taken against the accused. Justice Kaul commented that in our opinion, this (by the Supreme Court) is a violation of our order.
