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Chhattisgarh EOW files charge sheet against businessman aide in ₹175cr rice milling case
EOW files a chargesheet against Dipen Chawda for allegedly collecting ₹20 crore from public servants in a ₹175-crore rice milling scam.
RAIPUR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has filed a supplementary charge sheet against rice milling case accused Dipen Chawda, an associate of businessman Anwar Dhebar, alleging that Chawda collected nearly ₹20 crore from public servants in connection with the ₹175-crore case.
The charge sheet was submitted in the Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act) in Raipur, EOW said in a statement on Tuesday.
Chawda was arrested last month and has been described as a key aide of Dhebar.
So far, EOW has arrested five people in the case.
According to the EOW, Chawda had allegedly collected nearly ₹20 crore from public servants.
The first chargesheet in the case was filed in February this year against former managing director of Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd (CG-Markfed) Manoj Soni and Roshan Chandrakar, treasurer of the Chhattisgarh State Rice Millers Association and a rice miller.
A supplementary chargesheet was later filed in October against businessman Dhebar and retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja.
The FIR in the rice milling case was registered last year by the EOW/Anti-Corruption Bureau based on a report from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money-laundering angle. The state agency has so far claimed to have detected illegal recovery worth around ₹140 crore from rice millers.
According to ED, the case relates to the 2021-22 kharif marketing season when the state government was led by then chief minister Bhupesh Baghel of the Congress. The money laundering case was initiated after the income-tax department alleged that officials of the Chhattisgarh Rice Millers Association (CRMA) colluded with CG-Markfed officers to misuse a special incentive scheme and earn kickbacks.
Until 2021-22, rice millers were paid a special incentive of ₹40 per quintal of paddy for custom milling, which was later increased to ₹120 per quintal in two instalments. Investigators alleged that CG-Markfed officials and district marketing officers, along with CRMA office-bearers, extorted ₹20 per quintal from rice millers by withholding incentive bills without justification.
Previously, investigators alleged that retired IAS officer Tuteja orchestrated the illegal money collection in criminal conspiracy with CRMA office-bearers. The agency also alleged that Dhebar, the brother of Congress leader and former Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, played a key role in collecting, managing and utilising the illicit funds for Tuteja during the 2018-23 Congress government.
