Chhattisgarh HC grants bail to Baghel’s son in liquor ‘scam’

On July 18 last year, Baghel was arrested by the central agency in the Rs 2,833- crore alleged liquor scam. In October, Chaitanya moved the HC seeking bail after the special ED court and special EOW court rejected his bail applications.

On December 22, Chhattisgarh EOW submitted a chargesheet accusing Chaitanya of receiving Rs 200-250 crore in the alleged liquor scam between 2019 and 2022, when his father Bhupesh Baghel was at the helm of the state.

On September 15, the ED, in its supplementary prosecution complaint before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Raipur, accused Chaitanya Baghel of personally handling around Rs 1,000 crore generated from the liquor scam. On December 26, ED filed its last chargesheet in the case before a PMLA court, stating that as a result of the alleged scam, the state exchequer suffered losses of Rs 2,883 crore.

Besides Chaitanya, among those named in the chargesheet are former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma accused of giving policy assent and receiving proceeds of crime, former deputy secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office Saumya Chaurasia, an alleged key coordinator for handling illicit cash who managed appointments of compliant officers, and Anwar Dhebar (brother of Raipur mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar), the mastermind of the alleged scam.

Other key accused are former IAS officer Anil Tuteja (then Joint Secretary), Indian Telecom Service officer Arunpati Tripathi (then MD of CSMCL), and retired IAS officer Niranjan Das (then Excise Commissioner).

A total of 81 accused have been chargesheeted so far, including 59 in the final prosecution complaint filed before a special court in Raipur on December 26.

The case pertains to allegations that a criminal syndicate, in connivance with state’s political and administrative hierarchy, bootlegged alcohol to government liquor shops and extorted illegal commissions from sales.

ED counsel Saurabh Kumar Pandey said, “We have submitted the prosecution complaint within the stipulated three months period given by the Supreme Court. We have ample amounts of digital, documentary and oral evidence against all the accused. In case more evidence is received against any person in future it will be investigated.”

According to the chargesheet, the syndicate generated illegal earnings through four distinct channels—bribes were charged from liquor suppliers on official sales, facilitated by artificially increasing the “landing price” paid by the state, a parallel system sold “off-the-books” country liquor through government shops using duplicate holograms, annual bribes were paid by distillers to maintain market share and secure operational licenses, and a new license category was introduced to extort commissions from foreign liquor manufacturers, with 60% of profits allegedly diverted to the syndicate.

The ED has issued multiple provisional attachment orders, seizing movable and immovable properties totaling Rs 382.32 crore. These attachments include 1,041 properties linked to Dhebar and Baghel families, bureaucrats, politicians, and private entities, such as the Hotel Vennington Court in Raipur.