The stay was issued by a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih, who were hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by Vidhu Gupta, a Noida-based hologram manufacturer arrested by the Uttar Pradesh STF in May this year.
![[Rs 2,000 Crore Chhattisgarh Liquor Scam] SC Asks UP Police Not To Take Action Against Officials Involved](https://i0.wp.com/lawchakra.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-48-2.png?resize=480%2C270&ssl=1)
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court stayed proceedings related to an FIR filed by the Uttar Pradesh State Task Force (STF) concerning the Rs 2,000 crore Chhattisgarh liquor scam. The FIR, lodged in July last year at the Kasna police station in Greater Noida, after a complaint by a deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The stay was issued by a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih, who were hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by Vidhu Gupta, a Noida-based hologram manufacturer arrested by the Uttar Pradesh STF in May this year.
Gupta had earlier sought to quash the FIR in the Allahabad High Court, but the petition was dismissed as infructuous.
According to the FIR, Gupta’s company, Prizm Holography Security Films (PHSF), was unlawfully awarded a tender to supply holograms to the Chhattisgarh excise department. The FIR alleges that the tender process was manipulated by senior Chhattisgarh officials—Arunpati Tripathi (Special Secretary, Excise), Niranjan Das (Excise Commissioner), and Anil Tuteja (IAS)—to favor PHSF, despite its ineligibility.
The ED claims that the holograms were intended as a safety measure to ensure the sale of authentic liquor in the state. However, PHSF allegedly manufactured duplicate holograms in Noida, allowing the “liquor syndicate” to deceive consumers using what was supposed to be a security feature.
The ED labelled Anil Tuteja as the “kingpin” of an illicit liquor distribution network in Chhattisgarh, as outlined in their prosecution complaint (akin to a chargesheet) submitted to the special PMLA court.
The charge sheet by the Income Tax Department, filed in Delhi, 2020, which accused a syndicate of high-level officials, private individuals, and political figures of generating over Rs 2,000 crore in illegal funds through the sale of liquor between 2019 and 2022.
The allegations further detailed that bribes were systematically collected from distillers for each case of liquor procured from the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) and that country liquor was sold without proper documentation. Additionally, it was alleged that these bribes facilitated a cartel among distillers, allowing them a fixed market share.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the ED to provide the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and the First Information Report (FIR) that underpinned the lodged complaint. The Court had also noted the Tutejas’ challenge to Section 50 of the PMLA in their writ petition, which permits the ED to summon individuals, though it refrained from entertaining this challenge based on a 2022 verdict that upheld the ED’s search, seizure, and arrest powers.
During the course of these proceedings, allegations surfaced from the then Congress-led state government in Chhattisgarh, accusing the ED of overreaching in its investigation efforts, including harassment of state officers and threats of property seizure.
