A retired IAS officer was among two people that the Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Monday charge sheeted in connection with the alleged Rs 140 crore rice milling scam. According to officials, the 1,500-page supplementary chargesheet submitted before the Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act), Raipur, accuses embattled former IAS officer Anil Tuteja and businessman Anwar Dhebar of corruption and criminal conspiracy in a case that allegedly involved large scale extortion of rice millers. While Tuteja is a former managing director for the Chhattisgarh Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, Dhebar is the brother of former Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar. Both were previously arrested in connection with an alleged liquor scam in the state and are currently in jail. According to officials, Tuteja connived with officials of the Chhattisgarh State Rice Millers Association and extorted money from rice millers during the previous Congress rule, allegedly pocketing Rs 20 crore in the process. In 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) - which is also investigating the case - had alleged that the Chhattisgarh State Rice Millers Association colluded with officers of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Federation Ltd (MARKFED) to pay rice millers exorbitant prices during the Kharif marketing season 2021-22. The millers were then forced to pay “commissions” from these According to the ED, while the state government had was paying a special incentive of Rs 40 per quintal of paddy to rice millers for custom milling of paddy until the Kharif year 2021-22, this amount was “exorbitantly” increased to Rs 120 per quintal, paid in two instalments of Rs 60 each. This allegedly brought the total incentive to a whopping Rs 540 crore, and in return, Rs 175 crore were received in kickbacks by “high powers”. “To extort money from rice millers, pressure was exerted on marketing officers from the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Federation Ltd (MARKFED) to keep the bills of millers pending, forcing them to make illegal payments at the rate of Rs 20/quintal,” one source said. Anwar Debhar, the source said “was a politically influential figure in 2022-23”. “Digital evidence obtained during Income Tax Department raids has revealed that he exerted deep and direct influence not only on the liquor scam but also on other important departments of the then government, such as the Public Works Department and the Forest Department,” the source said. This supplementary chargesheet comes months after former Chhattisgarh State Rice Millers Association treasurer Roshan Chandrakar and ex-Managing Director Manoj Soni were arrested in connection with the case. Sources said police were also investigating the role of former Congress treasurer Ramgopal Agarwal.
