The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant bail to former Chhattisgarh excise official Arun Pati Tripathi, accused in the Chhattisgarh liquor case.
The court took serious exception to certain WhatsApp chats by him where he shared official hologram tender documents with other accused in the case.
Having spent 8 months in custody of the state economic offences wing, a bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said, “We could have granted you bail right away but we are not doing it for two reasons. Look at the WhatsApp chats. What business you had to share holograms with Anwar Dhebar and he then sends it to Anil Tuteja.”
Dhebar, a businessman having political links is alleged to be one of the kingpins in the case is accused of running a cartel by taking commissions from the liquor retailers and influencing policy decisions with the help of Tripathi, who was then the chairman of Chhattisgarh Marketing Corporation (CMC) and former IAS officer Anil Tuteja.
The bench said, “After reading these WhatsApp chats, we need to give the state couple of months to complete investigation as the money trail still remains to be traced.”
At the same time, the court told the investigation agency, “This investigation cannot go on endlessly. We grant time to the state to complete investigation within two months.”
The court kept the bail plea pending to be heard on February 21 next year.
Tuteja is also under arrest in a money laundering case probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which has alleged the liquor case to be worth over ₹2,161 crore.
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Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for the state pointed out that the state wishes to file an additional charge sheet and opposed grant of any bail to Tripathi.
He showed WhatsApp chats to show how the cartel functioned. He said that the cartel created fake holograms by giving the contract to one Prism Holography. Noting illegality in this tender, the two companies supplying hologram complained to the chief minister. This complaint was forwarded by Tripathi to Dhebar who forwarded it to Tuteja.
Tripathi denied the allegations claiming that much of whatever was produced by the state was prior to filing of charge sheet and with three charge sheets already filed, his incarceration is not necessary.
Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora appearing for Tripathi said, “I sent the messages to Tuteja as he is my senior. Also, I have shown that under my tenure, there is an increase in excise revenue with no shortfall. That policy still continues. I was arrested in April and not once, since my initial remand lapsed, that have asked for my custody.”
The bench said, “Considering the role attributed to you in framing policy and with regard to manipulation of software, let there be a complete investigation. He was in touch with all the accused. Just to avoid tampering of evidence, we want to ensure that investigation is not affected.”
Tripathi told the court that he was posted in Chhattisgarh on deputation and has now been repatriated back to Delhi.
In April this year, the top court had quashed the ED case against all accused as it emanated from income tax proceedings which is not a scheduled offence on which ED case can be predicated. Taking his combined custody in the cases lodged by ED and state, he has undergone 20 months of custody.