• Confidential letter by BJP legal cell functionary details deep-rooted excise-finance- political nexus 
• PMO and Home Minister marked in explosive Apr 10 letter backed by multiple enclosures spanning over 200 pages 
•  SEOIACB accused of shielding top officials through selective, incomplete investigation 

 

 

The Chhattisgarh administration has found itself in a state of deepening unease after receiving a confidential letter demanding that the multi-crore liquor scam be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for an independent and credible probe. The communication, routed directly to the Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and the Chief Secretary, and marked to both the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Union Home Minister, has called into question the integrity of the ongoing investigation by the State Economic Offences Investigation and Anti Corruption Bureau (SEOIACB). It alleges that the current probe is selective, sanitised, and designed to shield powerful bureaucrats and political beneficiaries, instead of unearthing the full scale of institutional complicity.

 

‘The Hitavada’ has exclusively accessed the April 10 letter—backed by multiple enclosures spanning over 200 pages—through well-placed sources in the State Administration. Authored by Naresh Chandra Gupta, a practising lawyer, the letter outlines an elaborate chain of violations—ranging from audit failures and procurement manipulation to forged despatch logs, untraceable RTI records, and alleged laundering of illicit cash proceeds from liquor sales. It paints a disturbing picture of collusion between Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL), Excise Department, and local police networks functioning under a carefully constructed web of political and bureaucratic patronage during 2019–2023. At the operational level, the complaint states that barcode contracts were repeatedly awarded to a single vendor without open retendering, undermining transparency in excise tracking. Despatches from bonded warehouses reportedly occurred without night-time inspections, in violation of Excise Rule 22(3). Stock registers failed to align with warehouse movement logs and e-payment ledgers. When RTI queries were filed, responses claimed records were ‘not found’ or ‘no longer traceable’. Gupta contends this deliberate erasure constitutes a breach of the Public Records Act and warrants prosecution under anti-corruption statutes.

 

The complaint identifies key figures allegedly complicit or negligent in enabling the scam. These include Bhupesh Baghel (former Chief Minister), Vivek Dhand (retired Chief Secretary), Anil Tuteja (retired IAS), Arunpati Tripathi (former MD, CSMCL), Soumya Chaurasia (suspended Deputy Secretary), Ashish Verma, Manish Banchhor, Sanjay Mishra, Manish Mishra, Vikas Agarwal alias Subbu, Sanjay Diwan, Arvind Singh, and Aijaz Dhebar (named via proximity). The letter also lists Niranjan Das (then Excise Secretary), A.P. Tripathy, and Sisir Raizada (NIC), alleging software manipulation to suppress excise data. Among implicated distillery and licensee actors are Navin Kedia (Chhattisgarh Distilleries Pvt Ltd), Bhupender Pakl Singh Bhatia (Bhatia Wine Merchants), Rajender Jaiswal (Welcome Distilleries), Siddarth Singhania (Top Securities), and directors of firms allegedly favoured for F.L.10-A licences: Sanjay and Manish Mishra (Nexgen Power Engitech), Atul Kumar Singh and Mukesh Manchanda (Om Sai Beverage), and Ashish Saurabh Kedia (Dishita Ventures). One of the most serious allegations implicates Abhishek Maheshwari, Additional SP (Intelligence), as coordinator of an off-the-books cash funnel. Proceeds from illegal liquor sales were reportedly aggregated at local police stations and then routed to Maheshwari’s residence, before being delivered to a safe house owned by Anwar Dhebar, brother of Aijaz Dhebar, former Mayor of Raipur. The complaint asserts this laundering channel was central to the scam, yet conspicuously excluded from the current probe. Further, it accuses A P Tripathy of directing alterations to excise software and Sisir Raizada of executing those changes.

 

These manipulations, it alleges, enabled ghost despatches, fake inventories, and forged liquor distribution logs—crippling oversight mechanisms. In his role as State BJP Office In-Charge, Gupta assembled internal documents, RTI denials, audit violations, and administrative loopholes to build the case. A senior official of Chhattisgarh Administration confided to this reporter, “The names listed in the complaint and the scale of ignored audit flags show that the state machinery’s current course of investigation is not just incomplete—it is complicit.”

 

The source noted that the April 10 letter offers strong grounds for a prima facie case under IPC Sections 409, 420, 467, 120B, and Sections 13(1)(d) and 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act—provisions that empower the CBI to take charge in matters of grave public concern. Gupta concluded by stating that “In keeping with the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the case must be transferred to the CBI to restore public faith in the promised clean-up.”