Apex court asks Enforcement Directorate not to create an ‘atmosphere of fear’
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New Delhi: While hearing an application filed by Chhattisgarh Government seeking to be impleaded as a party in petitions against Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Supreme Court on Tuesday told the investigation agency not to create 'an atmosphere of fear'.
The Chhattisgarh Government informed the apex court that the state’s several excise department officials accused Enforcement Directorate of threatening them and their family members with arrest and are 'trying to implicate the CM, according to NDTV.
Appearing for Chhattisgarh Government, senior Advocate Kapil Sibal told the court, ‘Enforcement Directorate is running amok and threatening excise officers’.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for ED, said that the agency was probing into liquor irregularities.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and A Amanullah told Enforcement Directorate not to create an atmosphere of fear in the excise official, adding that because of such behaviour, ‘a bonafide cause becomes suspect’.
‘Chhattisgarh Government has filed an application for impleading in the petitions filed by some persons challenging the Enforcement Directorate probe against them. Enforcement Directorate is conducting an investigation into the liquor scam which ran between 2019 to 2022 in which corruption was made in multiple ways. The bribe was collected from the distillers per each case of liquor procured from them by the CSMCL,’ they were quoted as saying.
In the ongoing probe into the alleged liquor scam, Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested Arun Pati Tripathi, who is the special secretary of the excise department and head of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL).
Enforcement Directorate investigation alleges that Arun Pati Tripathi involving directly at the insistence of Anwar Dhebar, brother of Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar, maximised corruption in the entire liquor system of Chhattisgarh.