Questions are being raised against the Congress in Chhattisgarh after reports of a coordinated campaign to save the primary accused, Anil Tuteja, in the Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam surfaced.

The NAN is the nodal agency in Chhattisgarh responsible for procuring and distributing food grains under PDS.

Allegations are also swirling of attempts to implicate former Chief Minister Raman Singh in the scam, as per media reports.

At the centre of the storm are Whatsapp chats of Anil Tuteja-IAS Officer, presently Joint Secretary, Industries, and his son Yash Tuteja, which were retrieved by Income Tax department consequent to its raids conducted in Chhattisgarh, wherein his mobile phone was seized in February 2020. These Whatsapp chats as per media reports contain the messages exchanged between the Tutejas and senior IPS officers in the State.

The chats clearly demonstrate that the entire criminal justice delivery system in the State is being “abused”, “misused” and “mutilated” at the behest of Anil Tuteja and his son Yash Tuteja, media reports alleged.

As per media reports, the Congress government functionaries in Chhattisgarh and prime accused Anil Tuteja were fabricating evidence and threatening witnesses to implicate Dr Raman Singh and his wife. In fact, the chats also show that Anil Tuteja was acting as the head of the NAN investigation where he himself was the prime accused and was coordinating the transfer of IPS officers, promotions and other favours doled to those who were willing to participate in these nefarious designs. Further, those who did not comply were being given punishment posting or worse, being implicated in false cases themselves, media reports allege.

It is being pointed out that in April 2017, Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh, had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding action against two IAS officers who are prime accused in the NAN scam. In the letter, they had insinuated that the Modi government was deliberately not prosecuting Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla because if they were prosecuted, they could reveal secrets about the involvement of Dr Raman Singh in the scam, media reports said.

In 2015, when the BJP was in power in Chhattisgarh and Dr Raman Singh was the Chief Minister, the Congress had alleged that the government was distributing sub-standard quality grains under the PDS and that officials had received kickbacks from rice millers to allow this.

The BJP government had launched a probe into what came to be known as the NAN scam and subsequently, 27 people were booked by the BJP government – Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla being the prime accused.

ACB later started a money laundering probe as well and a chargesheet was filed in 2015. After this, Congress came to power in Chhattisgarh, media reports said.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)