The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against four government employees, including a senior IAS officer, and six Daman-based distilleries for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 340 crore to the exchequer.
According to the CBI, a case under different Sections of IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against O. Ravi, Joint Secretary (Disaster Management), Ministry of Home Affairs and two excise inspectors — Ramesh Mahyavanshi and Vijay Halpati — and against sub-inspector Suresh Dhodi.
The case was also registered against the directors of six distilleries — Khemani Distilleries, Royal Distilleries, Jupiter Distilleries, Krimpy Distilleries, Silver Star Distilleries and Dharmesh Distilleries and other unknown persons for fraud.
“It has been alleged that in order to evade excise duty and VAT, the distilleries of Daman in connivance with officials of the excise department resorted to under reporting of production by preparing fake documents,” a CBI spokesperson said.
The CBI has conducted searches at 36 places of accused persons at Daman, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Ravi, a 1983-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, allegedly took a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to get a Daman administrator transferred, he said.
Sources said the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to suspend Ravi.
The suspension orders are likely to be issued Wednesday night or Thursday, they said.
