The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Chhattisgarh has filed a fresh FIR against two retired IAS officers and the former state Advocate General, accusing them of abusing their official positions to obstruct and influence the ongoing trial in the 2015 Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam case. The accused — former IAS officers Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla, along with former Advocate General Satish Chandra Verma — are alleged to have colluded with other government officials during the tenure of the previous Congress government (2019-2023).
Tuteja and Shukla, already among the 18 accused in the NAN scam, are alleged to have used their positions to help Verma, who served as Advocate General from 2019 to 2020. Tuteja was posted as Joint Secretary from 2019 to 2020, while Shukla held the position of Principal Secretary from 2018 to 2020. The scam itself revolves around allegations that rice millers and agents paid bribes to enable the distribution of substandard rice through the state’s Public Distribution System (PDS), involving billions of rupees.
According to the new FIR, WhatsApp messages suggest that Shukla and Tuteja conspired to provide Verma with improper advantages, enabling him to file favorable responses in the High Court to help secure anticipatory bail for themselves. The trio has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had initiated a probe into the case in 2019 with an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and the Chhattisgarh ACB/EOW filed a chargesheet thereafter. In 2020, both Shukla, who was the NAN chairman during the alleged scam, and Tuteja, the Managing Director, were granted anticipatory bail by the Chhattisgarh High Court. However, the ED later challenged this decision in the Supreme Court.
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