New Delhi: The accused persons in the Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam were in touch with a Chhattisgarh high court judge through constitutional functionaries who were helping the accused, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has told the Supreme Court.
The apex court bench comprising Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justices Ravindra Bhat and Ajay Rastogi were hearing a petition filed by the ED, seeking a plea for transfer of the investigation in the NAN scam case.
The ED had in December 2021 sought a re-trial of the case outside Chhattisgarh and asked for the case to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In 2020, the high court had granted anticipatory bail to two IAS officers – Anil Kumar Tujeja and Alok Shukla – who had been booked during the tenure of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
The multi-crore public distribution system (PDS) scam from Chhattisgarh, or NAN scam, came to light in 2015 when the Economic Offences Investigation (EOI) and anti-corruption Bureau, Raipur, Chhattisgarh conducted raids on February 12, 2015 in different district offices and residences of the officers of Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation and Chhattisgarh State Warehousing Corporation. NAN is the agency in charge of the distribution and procurement of grains.
The two IAS officers arrested in a money laundering case had been accused of supplying low-quality rice, grams and salt, etc.
According to LiveLaw, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, said that it had emerged that senior functionaries of the Chhattisgarh government were actively involved in “weakening” the case of petitioners. He further said that the accused had not only influenced the witnesses to withdraw their statements before the ED, but even the special investigation team (SIT) had made seven attempts to stall the proceedings.
He also alleged that the accused had received help from the present Chhattisgarh government of the Congress party.
In September 2021, the ED had informed the Supreme Court through an affidavit that chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, some members of the SIT probing the PDS scam and a top law officer were allegedly trying to weaken the case against the two IAS officers. However, the Congress denied the allegations, saying they were “politically motivated”.
“These highly placed officers in connivance with authorities in constitutional posts took advantage. I have not mentioned names. But I have WhatsApp chats. We have not revealed names so that faith of people is not shaken upon system (sic),” Mehta said, Bar and Bench reported.
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Meanwhile, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Chhattisgarh government, said, “Let Chhattisgarh file it in sealed cover documents and let there also be reports on how the scam was during the BJP regime.”
However, Mehta submitted that disclosing the said material to the public would shake the faith of people in the system.
Therefore, he requested the bench to take some time and look at the material ‘at leisure’ and then make its decision.
Accordingly, as per the LiveLaw report, Chief Justice U.U. Lalit said, “Whatever documents are in sealed cover, we haven’t seen them but the SG has requested that we have a look at them so we will see them. In case we find that the material is to be made public, we’ll allow that.”
The case will be heard next on September 27.