How Politicians, Bureaucrats Pulled Off 'Great Liquor Loot' Of Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh's liquor trade has exploded into one of India's biggest scams. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Chaitanya Baghel, son of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, blowing the lid off a massive scandal that's shaking the state.

The ED has alleged that the entire liquor trade in the state, between 2019 and 2023, was nothing short of a state-run extortion racket, masked by policy and powered by political muscle. And at the heart of it, ED claims, was the then Chief Minister's son -- pulling strings not only to divert black money into real estate but to build an empire of cash-fuelled influence.

What makes the scam even more sinister is the ED's explosive assertion that the liquor syndicate -- consisting of Anwar Dhebar, Anil Tuteja, and  Arun Pati Tripathi -- was allegedly working under the aegis of retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Vivek Dhand, a former Chief Secretary of the state. Mr Dhand, according to the ED, was not just a silent overseer but a direct beneficiary of the scam.

The arrest of Chaitanya Baghel, ED says, is no routine development. His real estate project, Vitthal Green, was allegedly the laundromat through which illicit liquor cash was turned into clean capital. On the surface, it was a housing complex. Behind the scenes, it was - in the ED's own words - "a construction site for corruption."

According to the agency's damning remand note accessed by NDTV, Mr Baghel's company received Rs 5 crore from a shell firm named Saheli Jewellers, flagged for laundering scam proceeds. Though disguised as a loan, no interest was paid, and Rs 4.5 crore remained outstanding, indicating the transaction was a facade. What's more, despite only Rs 7.14 crore being shown in books, the actual cost of construction was estimated between Rs 13 to Rs 15 crore - and at least Rs 4.2 crore of that was allegedly paid in hard cash to contractors. 

In one jaw-dropping day in 2020, 19 flats were bought by employees of liquor baron Trilok Singh Dhillon, a move the ED believes was designed to blur the money trail.

But the liquor scam is not just a tale of hidden flats and cooked books. It is a saga spanning bureaucratic capture, backdoor dealings, and systemic siphoning, executed in three chilling parts.

Part A involved distilleries paying Rs 75 per liquor case as "commission" - a bribe baked into the price - facilitated by high-ranking officers like Anil Tuteja (Retd IAS) and Arun Pati Tripathi (ITS), and allegedly overseen by Congress strongman Anwar Dhebar. This channel alone generated over Rs 319 crore, according to ED.

Part B reveals the existence of a shadow liquor economy: liquor was sold outside the system using duplicate holograms and bypassed state warehouses altogether. Instead, it was transported directly to shops and sold for cash. In 2022-23 alone, ED says 400 trucks a month moved illegal liquor under the nose of excise officials. The syndicate made an estimated Rs 3,000 per case, turning liquor into liquid gold.

Then came Part C, the most audacious twist - targeting foreign liquor through a rigged license system dubbed FL-10A. Select firms, allegedly fronts for the syndicate, were given exclusive licenses to sell premium imported brands. They bought alcohol at last year's government rate, but marked it up for consumers. The spoils were split, with 60% of the profits allegedly diverted to the political cabal. Just this arm of the scam is said to have earned Rs 211 crore.

But what truly exposes the rot is not just the cash - it's the architecture of corruption. Every cog in the wheel, from bottle manufacturers and security contractors to excise inspectors and even hologram printers, were allegedly in on it. The ED says the very machinery that was meant to regulate alcohol sales became a high-performance corruption engine, greased with fear, favour, and fortunes.

In a chilling confession, Laxmi Narayan Bansal, better known as Pappu, a key accused and cash handler, told ED officials that he alone managed over 1,000 crore in scam proceeds. He claimed to have personally delivered Rs 80-100 crore in cash to a man named KK Srivastava, on the direct instruction of Chaitanya Baghel. Chat logs pulled from Anwar Dhebar's phone allegedly show Baghel as an active coordinator of this underground money movement, not a passive recipient but a central figure in the laundering machine.

The ED calls it nothing short of a hijack of governance, a hostile takeover of the excise economy by those in power. "It wasn't just an abuse of office," said one official off the record. "It was a systematic plunder dressed as policy."

And now, with Chaitanya in custody, the heat is rising. The ED has demanded five days of interrogation, hoping to extract critical digital evidence, uncover communication trails, and identify others in the chain of command. But sources tell NDTV that the former CM's son has been evasive and non-cooperative, refusing to divulge financial details or explain fund flow patterns.

The political fallout is just beginning. The ED claims that Rs 1,392 crore of the total scam value was allegedly diverted to Congress leaders and allies between 2019 and 2022.

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