The central probe agency has seized incriminating documents and digital records allegedly linked to the scam from the premises owned by Lakhma and further examined it. There remains an inkling with the federal probe agency that the Congress offices in both places were built with the resources acquired through corrupt means during the tenure of Lakhma.The questioning of the contractor who built both the official establishments of Congress is also on the cards.Sources informed that the state senior Congress leaders held a meeting on Wednesday night at the house of the leader of opposition Charandas Mahant, to chalk out a strategy for drafting the responses to be submitted to the ED. The party leaders decided to present the reply with all supporting documents regarding the constructions of Rajiv Bhawan built at both places during the tenure of Lakhma as excise minister.Lakhma, a legislator from Konta (Sukma district), has maintained that he is illiterate and used to put his signatures wherever he was asked as the excise minister. “I was framed and the voices of the poor are being suppressed (under the present regime)”, he said.The ED estimated that Proceeds of Crime of around Rs 2,161 crore have been generated by the suspects in the alleged scam.In 2023, the ED investigating the “fraud” in liquor claimed a prevailing criminal syndicate had operated illegal bribe collections by controlling the high-level management of key state departments and state public sector units in Chhattisgarh.
Source link
