Raipur
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday filed the eighth charge sheet in the alleged Chhattisgarh liquor scam, naming accused Chaitanya Baghel before the Special Court in Raipur. With this, the agency has now placed a total of eight charge sheets, including the main prosecution complaint, on record in the case.
Officials said the latest challan details the current status of investigation against all accused arrested so far and encloses reports of digital evidence gathered during the probe. It also outlines the present stage of inquiry into other suspects who remain under investigation, with the agency stating that the probe is continuing.
According to the findings summarised in the charge sheet, Baghel’s role during the relevant period was allegedly central to setting up and protecting a collection “syndicate” within the Excise Department. Investigators claim he acted as a key coordinator between senior officers — including Anil Tuteja, Saumya Chaurasia, Arunpati Tripathi and Niranjan Das — and ground-level syndicate heads such as Anwar Dhebar, Arvind Singh and Vikas Agrawal, ensuring alignment of interests and issuing directions.
The agency has further alleged that Baghel helped channel the purported scam proceeds collected by Dhebar’s team to “higher levels” using trusted intermediaries, and then managed those funds. His share of the alleged proceeds was routed through multiple firms linked to businessman Trilok Singh Dhillon, before being transferred via banking channels into Baghel’s family-controlled entities and deployed in under-construction real estate projects, the charge sheet states.
Investigators also claim that large amounts of the alleged illicit funds were brought in through banking channels using family friends and associates, and subsequently invested. Evidence gathered so far indicates that Baghel personally received about Rs 200–250 crore as his share, the agency has asserted.
The EOW/ACB has maintained that the liquor syndicate was able to operate over an extended period due to what it describes as high-level protection, policy and administrative intervention and influence attributed to Baghel. On the basis of current calculations, the agency has pegged the excise scam amount at around Rs 3,074 crore, while cautioning that the figure could exceed Rs 3,500 crore once all sources are fully accounted for in the continuing probe.
