India News | Civil Supply Scam: C'garh Govt Protecting 2 Officials, Says BJP

Raipur, Sep 28 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and former chief minister Raman Singh on Tuesday alleged the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in Chhattisgarh was trying to protect two senior officers accused of being part of a multi-crore state's civil supply scam, which was unearthed in 2015.

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He leveled the allegations citing a news report published on Tuesday that claimed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has told the Supreme Court through a submission that the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, some members of the state's special investigation team probing the scam and a top law officer had allegedly weakened the case against the two bureaucrats accused in the scam.

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The ED has been probing money laundering aspect in the civil supply scam.

Addressing a press conference here, Singh said, from the last two-and-half years, his party had been claiming that the role of the Congress government was suspicious in connection with probe into the scam and the money laundering aspect associated with it.

"To save former managing director of state's Nangrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) Anil Kumar Tujeja and its former chairman Alok Shukla in the case, the state government took wrong decisions. The Congress government ordered a fresh SIT probe in the case in which the charge sheet was already filed and tried to influence the probe,” Singh claimed.

After the scam was unearthed (under the previous BJP regime), Congress leaders had themselves written a letter to the prime minister demanding strict action against the two officers, but now when they are power, they are trying to weaken the case, Singh said citing the media report.

While Tuteja, an IAS officer, is currently joint secretary of the state's Commerce and Industries department, Shukla, a retired IAS official, was appointed as principal secretary by the state government on contract and heads multiple departments including health.

The Chhattisgarh High Court had, in August last year, granted anticipatory bail to the two officers in the money laundering case lodged in connection with the scam.

Reacting to Singh's allegations, Congress said the scam happened during the BJP government and was probed by it, but now, when in opposition, it was putting blame on others.

“The saying 'ulta chor kotwal ko daante' fits here. The civil supply scam worth Rs 36,000 crore took place during Raman Singh's rule. Singh should tell how he allowed such a scam to take place. The investigation into the scam also took place during his government and, therefore, he should answer how the case got weak,” said Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, head of the state Congress communication wing.

Trivedi said Singh should clarify why was the charge sheet against them filed in the court in 2018 when the Centre had sanctioned prosecution permission in 2016 itself.

In 2015, the state's ACB and EOW raided premises of officials and employees of Chhattisgarh State Civil Supply Corporation (CSCSC) and registered a case against 28 people over alleged irregularities related to supply of poor quality rice under the Public Distribution System (PDS), and payment of money to certain officials.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had lodged an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in January, 2019 after taking cognizance of the FIR and charge sheet filed by the Chhattisgarh police's EOW and ACB in the scam.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)