RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday stated that claims by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that it has unearthed a liquor rip-off within the state have been “completely false, baseless and condemnable” and that ED, a federal company, acted on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“The aim of ED is to ensure the BJP benefits in elections. But, no matter how many conspiracies are hatched by the central agency, the BJP will not succeed. The Congress government will expose every conspiracy of BJP leaders and the ED,” the chief minister stated.

In a two-page assertion launched on Sunday, ED claimed to have collected “evidence of unprecedented corruption and money laundering to the tune of ₹2,000 crore between 2019 and 2022”. The federal company additionally stated an “organised criminal syndicate” led by Anwar Dhebar, brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, was working in Chhattisgarh and that the syndicate “was backed by and was working for illegal gratification of the high-level political executives and senior bureaucrats”.

The company claimed that Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anil Tuteja, who’s serving as joint secretary within the state’s commerce and industries division, and Anwar Dhebar have been the kingpin of the syndicate.

Baghel advised reporters in Raipur that statistics of income over the past a number of years confirmed that this income elevated after the Congress got here to energy. “The data shows a significant rise in revenue collected from liquor sales under the current Congress government as compared to the previous BJP regime. It was the Raman Singh-led BJP government’s decision to sell liquor through a corporation in 2017 in the state. No change was made in distilleries, officers, transporters and placement agencies linked to the liquor trade in the state since 2017. The revenue collection from liquor increased from ₹3,900 crore in 2017-18 to ₹6,000 crore in 2022-23 which clearly shows that the ED’s claim of decline in revenue collection due to alleged corruption is baseless,” Baghel stated.

The chief minister added that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) performed audits of the state’s excise division and gave it a clear chit. But for the reason that opposition BJP wasn’t capable of finding any situation to assault the Congress authorities, it was utilizing ED in an try and defame the federal government, Baghel added.

“In February 2020, the Income Tax department from Delhi carried out searches against those linked to the excise (liquor trade) in the state. But it is a matter of shame that the agency could not even reveal how much movable or immovable assets were recovered from whom. Again, in March this year, ED conducted raids which also turned out to be a failure as the anti-money laundering agency did not issue any press note about recovery made during the searches,” Baghel stated.