A partially burned stockpile of duplicate holograms was taken on Thursday by the Chhattisgarh Police’s Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offence Wing (ACB/EOW) from Anwar Dhebar’s farm in Dhaneli village, which is outside Raipur city, and is the property of an accused liquor scammer.
In addition, three others were taken into custody for smashing the duplicate holograms.
Anurag Dwivedi, Amit Singh, and Deepak Duari were among those taken into custody, according to ACB Additional Superintendent of Police Chandresh Thakur.
Three Chhattisgarh government officials, including two IAS officers and the elder brother of Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar, were arrested in July of last year in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, on allegations of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy. This was in relation to an ED investigation into an alleged liquor scam.
The deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), located in Raipur, filed a complaint and opened a formal investigation at the Kasna police station. The ED is looking into the claims of a Rs 2,000 crore liquor fraud.
The FIR claimed that Prizm Holography Security Films Pvt Ltd, a Noida-based business, was unfairly awarded a contract to provide holograms to the Chhattisgarh excise department.
The company was not allowed to participate in the tender process, but senior authorities changed the tender’s terms and awarded the company an illegal tender with the help of the company’s owners.
In exchange, they agreed to provide unaccounted duplicate holograms for the sale of illicit country liquor bottles from state-run stores in Chhattisgarh in exchange for an 8 paisa fee per hologram, according to the FIR.
The hologram serves as a safety measure to guarantee that only legally authorized alcohol is sold in the state. However, Prizm Holography’s production of duplicate holograms in Noida made it possible for the “liquor syndicate” to deceive customers by using the same safety feature.
The “liquor syndicate leaders” gave the orders for the holograms to be manufactured at a plant in Noida and then shipped to Chhattisgarh, according to the FIR.
Dhebar and Tripathi were detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police last month. The UP Police are holding the two of them.
