New Delhi, April 29: The central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) has registered a corruption case against O. Ravi, joint- secretary ( disaster management) in the Union ministry for home affairs ( MHA). He has been accused of conniving with six private distilleries to cause an evasion of Rs 340 crore in excise duties and value added tax in the Union Territory of Daman.
Ravi, a 1983- batch Gujarat- cadre IAS officer, allegedly took a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to get a Daman administrator transferred, CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal said. The administrator had tightened his control on under- reporting of production and unauthorised sale by the distilleries to neighbouring states by holding regular joint meetings and initiating action for recovery of evaded excise duties.
The MHA has now asked the department of personnel and training to suspend Ravi, a source added.
The CBI conducted searches at 36 places in Delhi, Mumbai and Daman in connection with the scam.
The directors of six distilleries in Daman — Khemani, Royal, Jupiter, Krimpy, Silver Star and Dharmesh — and some unknown persons were booked for fraud along with two inspectors and one subinspector from the excise department.
Ashok Khemani, the owner of Royal Distilleries, was arrested in Delhi by the CBI. The three excise officials, Ramesh Mahyavanshi, Vijay Halpati and Suresh Dhodi, were arrested in Daman.
The distillers had resorted to unauthorised sale of under- reported liquor bottles to neighbouring states such as Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra to evade excise duty in connivance with the officials. One of the distillers was in touch with Ravi to use his services for the transfer of the Daman administrator and to evade the recovery of excise duty, the CBI said.
—Agencies