Ranchi, Shakeel Akhtar / Sunil Jha:
Arun Pati Tripathi, advisor of the new liquor policy in Jharkhand, turned out to be the kingpin of the Chhattisgarh liquor scam. He became an advisor in Jharkhand without the permission of the Central Government and the Government of Chhattisgarh. Made an IT company in the name of his wife and sold it to a company named ‘Prism’. Later this company was given the job of printing holograms in Chhattisgarh. In return took 90 lakh rupees from him. Tripathi’s wife has informed ED about the complete control of the company formed in her name with her husband.
During the interrogation after the arrest of Arun Pati Tripathi, the ED found evidence that he was the kingpin of the Chhattisgarh liquor scam. He had complete control over the network of liquor sales (unaccounted sale) parallel to the government. He has collected Rs 20 crore as commission from this parallel arrangement of liquor sale. Investigation has found that in the year 2021, he formed an IT company in the name of his wife. Sold this company to ‘Prism Holography & Films Pvt Ltd’ at a huge cost.
Prism was given the job of printing holograms and instead of printing fake holograms, he also fixed his commission per hologram. Vidhu Gupta of Prism Hologram, in his statement recorded under Section-50 of PMLA, has accepted that a ‘deal’ was struck with Arun Pati Tripathi to get the work of Hologram done. Under this, he was paid Rs 90 lakh. Along with this, commission was also given at the rate of eight paise per hologram.
Liquor Syndicate used to earn Rs 2320 illegally on one case:
Investigation found that the price of country liquor sent from the distillery was Rs 560 per box, but the maximum retail price of Rs 2880 was written on it. In this way, on the sale of one box, the liquor syndicate used to earn Rs 2320 illegally. On an average, 200 trucks of country liquor were sold every month by putting fake holograms. Later it increased to 400 trucks per month.
This caused a huge loss of revenue to the government. In Chhattisgarh, this gang, which used to collect commission from liquor, had also fixed commission on the liquor (accounted sale) sold by affixing original hologram. Under this, commission at the rate of Rs 75 per case was collected from liquor companies on legal liquor.
ED had also summoned Tripathi’s wife during the investigation. During interrogation, he accepted that the IT company named after him had nothing to do with him. The complete control of the company is with her husband Arunpati Tripathi, who looks after all the work of this company. In the investigation of Arun Tripathi’s case, ED found that he is basically an officer of the Department of Telecom.
He is working in Chhattisgarh Marketing Corporation on deputation. He has not taken permission from Telecom Ministry and Chhattisgarh State Government before being appointed as consultant in liquor business in Jharkhand. According to the rules, to become a consultant in Jharkhand, he was required to take permission from his parent department and Chhattisgarh government.
M/s Sumit Facilities got the work of man power supply in 15 districts
During the investigation, ED also found that Tripathi had set up a parallel system of liquor trade using government agencies. He had given the work of manpower supply to M/s Sumit Facilities in 15 districts of the state. In these districts, liquor was sold parallel to the government. Earned crores of rupees by selling fake hologram affixed liquor at a high price.
