VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 18: Power broker Prem Prakash embezzled Rs Seven Crore revenue of the Jharkhand government, but when the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise) Gajendra Singh and General Manager of Jharkhand State Beverages Corporation Limited (JSBCL) Sudhir Kumar proceeded to lodge an FIR, they had to eat a humble pie.
A very senior official of the Chief Minister’s office considered close to the then Chief Minister Raghubar Das is said to have directed the police not to lodge the FIR against Prem Prakash.
The Excise department in a written submission before the Ranchi police claimed that Prem Prakash who supplied manpower to the government-run liquor shops has embezzled a huge amount of the government revenue. Had the police registered the FIR it could have exposed a massive liquor scam. The Excise Department even alleged Prem Prakash laundered proceeds of crime in his other business.
This was the Raghubar Das government and the incident had taken place in the month of July 2018 when the Excise Department and the JSBCL jointly wrote to Argora police station in-charge under Ranchi district to lodge an FIR against Prem Prakash, drivers of Prem Prakash namely Gaurav Singh, Manjeet, Vinay Shankar and Anil Kumar Jha besides the official bodyguard of Prem Prakash named Kamjeet Singh.
It was not an ordinary complaint since the Excise department conducted raids and caught Gaurav Singh, Manjeet, Vinay Shankar, and Anil Kumar Jha and handed over them to the police along with evidence.
“Prem Prakash was so politically powerful that the police did not lodge the FIR. From the government-run liquor shops, Prem Prakash used to procure costly liquor without any payment. The department carried out a surprise inspection of one of the retail liquor shops at Argora and found several anomalies in the daily sale record. The examination of the sale record revealed Prem Prakash and his people took away liquor without payment. Entries of the sale records clearly reflect. Besides, there was tempering in the records. But a very senior official of the Chief Minister’s secretariat intervened and he stopped the police from lodging the FIR,” an official of the Excise Department said.
Prem Prakash supplied manpower under the new Excise Policy of the Raghubar Das government
It should be noted that the then Raghubar Das government introduced a new excise policy and took direct control of the liquor trade including running retail shops. Prem Prakash who runs M/s Shomuk Engineering & Consultancy Service used to supply manpower to run 230 retail liquor shops across Jharkhand.
Liquor shop inspection by Excise Department exposed the scam
The copy of the unregistered FIR dated July 28, 2018 in the possession of this correspondent reveals that a team of the Excise department led by the Excise Commissioner carried out an inspection at 010FLX retail liquor shop at Argora on July 27, 2018. Officials found discrepancies in the stock and day-to-day sale. On being questioned, the coordinator Rajesh Dutta, shop manager, August Singh and salesman Arvind Kumar Singh said that their owner Prem Prakash and his staff forcibly take away high price liquor without payment. Sometimes they put an entry in the sale register and sometimes they did it without any entry. But they never paid any money. The Excise Department quickly conducted a search at the office of his company Shomuk Engineering & Consultancy Service at Ashoknagar under Argora police station.
Prem Prakash runs another company M/s Kishan Poultry Farm and it is located at the same address. Notably, the same persons work in both of his companies. Here officials seized a large quantity of empty and filled liquor bottles. Investigation revealed that these were missing from the sale records.
Rajesh Dutta, August Singh, Arvind Singh, Anil Jha, Manjeet and Vinay Shankar in their statement given before the Excise Department accepted that liquors were regularly taken from the shop without payment.
Prem Prakash guzzled costly liquor
Documents in possession of this correspondent reveal that Prem Prakash guzzled liquor worth Rs 147373 from this shop from March 1, 2018, till March 28, 2018. He did not pay any amount. Again, from the same shop he and his men took away liquor worth Rs 176417 from May 31, 2018, till July 20, 2018. The sale record bears the signature of when and who took liquor from this shop as udhari and never paid. To hide the crime stock register was manipulated.
The Argora shop was not the only shop in Jharkhand where Prem Prakash allegedly embezzled government revenue. As per an estimate of the department, Prem Prakash embezzled an amount not less than Rs Seven Crore from the government.
Prem Prakash evaded questioning by the department
Taking a serious note of pilferage and embezzlement of the government revenue, the Excise Commissioner on July 28, 2018, was asked to attend the meeting to explain the allegation. But when he ignored, the Excise Department approached the police.