Chhattisgarh High Court on August 14 granted anticipatory bail to IAS officers Anil Tuteja (IAS:2003) and Alok Shukla (IAS:1986) in a money laundering case related to the Chhattisgarh Civil Supply Corporation scam. Justice Arvind Singh Chandel had reserved the order on separate pre-arrest bail pleas of Shukla and Tuteja on July 14.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had lodged an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in January last year. It was based on the FIR and charge sheet filed by the Chhattisgarh police’s economic offences wing (EOW) and the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) in the civil supply scam.

Tuteja and Shukla were named as accused in the ED’s case, so the duo sought anticipatory bail. In 2015, the ACB and EOW raided properties of officials of the Chhattisgarh State Civil Supply Corporation (CSCSC) and registered a case against 28 people.

Shukla, then Food Secretary, and Tuteja, then managing director of the corporation, were not made accused initially but were named in a supplementary charge sheet filed in December 2018. The case was related to the supply of substandard rice under the Public Distribution System and payment of money to certain officials.