ED registers PMLA case in Chhattisgarh Civil Supply Corporation ​scam

NEW DELHI/ RAIPUR: The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case in the alleged multi-crore Chhattisgarh Civil Supply Corporation scam, which was unearthed in 2015, officials said Wednesday.

The ED has taken cognisance of the FIR and charge sheet filed by the Chhattisgarh Police's economic offences wing (EOW) and the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) in the case, they said.

An Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED's equivalent of a police FIR, has been filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) sometime back, the officials said.

The agency is expected to soon issue summons to the accused named in the ECIR in order to take forward its probe, find if black money was generated in the purported scam and whether those involved laundered the funds to create illegal assets or wealth.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel also tweeted on the development saying: "The ED's action on the Civil Supply scam has confirmed our (his party) allegations that a huge amount of money was embezzled in it."

He, however, raised a question saying that "so far, who had prevented the ED (from registering the case). I hope the ED will keep its institutional integrity protected and will not influence the SIT investigation into the scam."

The Congress-led Chhattisgarh government, that came to power last year, has appointed a 12-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by an IPS officer, to probe the alleged scam.

The alleged scam was exposed in February, 2015 when the ACB and the EOW carried out simultaneous raids at 25 premises of the Civil Supplies Corporation and its officials.

Later, the ACB made 18 people, including two Indian Administrative Service (IAS)officers, Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla, accused in the case.

The Congress had earlier alleged that then chief minister Raman Singh, his wife and other high profile people were named as beneficiaries in a diary which was recovered during the raid, a charge refuted continuously by the BJP leadership.

Congress also claimed that the civil supply scam was to the tune of about Rs 36,000 crore.