THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Ranchi, Dec. 16: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today filed a chargesheet in the Ranchi special court against liquor baron Jogendra Tiwari in the liquor scam in Jharkhand. The agency had arrested Tiwary on October 19 last.
The ED had earlier told the special court in Ranchi that Jogendra Tiwari and another power broker, Prem Prakash, monopolised the liquor business in the state with help from ‘highly-placed bureaucrats and politicians’. Both are cooling their heels in the Birsa Munda jail.
ED raids
The ED had arrested Tiwari two months after it conducted searches at around three dozen locations in Ranchi, Dumka, Deoghar and Godda districts on August 23 and August 24 linked to him and his associates.
The ED conducted raids on an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) recorded by the agency on March 31, 2022, treating four first information reports (FIR) registered with different police stations in the state related to illegal liquor sale, illegal sand mining and fraudulent sale of land as a predicate offence. Later, 14 more FIRs have been merged as predicate offences in the said ECIR.
Sand and liquor business
During its investigation, the ED found that Tiwari was running a sand and liquor business in the name of other individuals who were just name lenders or were his employees and associates, and the actual control of these businesses was with Tiwari.
The ED investigation further revealed that entities were formed in the names of salesmen of the wine shops of Tiwari, and these salesmen were made namesake partners.
“These firms were also allotted licenses for wholesale sale of liquor in the state of Jharkhand in the year 2021,” the agency said.