NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided the residence of senior Congress leader and former party treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal, who is currently lodged in jail in Dhamtari in connection with the alleged Rs 3,000-crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh.
A large number of Congress leaders and workers gathered outside Agrawal’s residence in the Audyogik Ward area of Raipur and protested against the ED action. They raised slogans against the Central government and the agency.
The ED had earlier arrested Agrawal as part of its money-laundering investigation into the alleged liquor scam. The agency said a substantial part of the alleged proceeds of crime, generated in cash, was delivered to Agrawal when he was the treasurer of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
Agrawal is accused of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption in the state’s excise administration between 2019 and 2023.
“Investigation revealed that a syndicate comprising Anil Tuteja (retd IAS), Anwar Dhebar and Arun Pati Tripathi (an Indian Telecom Service officer) orchestrated a large-scale scam in the state’s liquor trade and generated proceeds of crime of Rs 3,000 crore through illegal commission on liquor sales, unaccounted country liquor sale, commission collected from distillers and from foreign liquor companies and against the grant of FL-10A licences,” the ED said.
The agency further said that “statements recorded of the persons who handled and moved the cash have revealed that the cash was delivered, at the instance of Ramgopal Agrawal and through handlers of the syndicate, at Rajiv Bhawan, Raipur, the then office of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee”.
Agrawal was earlier summoned for questioning. The ED said he subsequently gave evasive replies in his statement.