The Enforcement Directorate Monday conducted searches at multiple locations in Madhya Pradesh as part of a money laundering probe linked to alleged about Rs 50 crore worth irregularities in liquor trade between 2015-16 and 2017-18 financial years, officials said.
At least 11 premises belonging to different liquor contractors in Bhopal, Indore and Mandsaur are being raided under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The money laundering case stems from a state police FIR filed against liquor contractors for allegedly causing loss to government revenue to the tune of Rs. 49,42,45,615 through forgery and manipulation of treasury challans, and for unlawfully obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the acquisition of liquor during the period FY 2015-16 to FY 2017-18.
The Enforcement Directorate suspects that the accused liquor contractors used to prepare challans of small amounts and deposit them in the bank.
In the prescribed format of the challan, "Rs. in figures" and "Rs. in words" were written. The value was filled in figures, however, blank space was left after "Rs. in words", they said.
After remitting the amount, the depositor would later write the increased amount in the form of lakh or thousand in the above-mentioned blank space, and copies of the so-called challans of such increased amounts would be submitted at the respective country liquor warehouse or at the district excise office in case of foreign liquor, the officials said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
