Minister’s kin in excise scam
From Vimal Sumbly and Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service

FATEHABAD, Nov 16 — The city police has registered a case against eight persons, including a brother of the Minister of State for Medical Education in the Chautala government, Mr Vinod Marya, for their alleged involvement in a Rs 4 crore excise scam.

The scandal was detected a fortnight ago. Three liquor contract firms have duped the state exchequer of about Rs 4 crore.

An FIR was registered yesterday. Confirming this, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Malik and the Superintendent of Police, Mr S.S. Deswal, said the FIR had been registered against Mr Raj Kumar Marya, alias Gope, younger brother of Mr Vinod Marya, Mr Dev Sharan, alias Paul, Mr Radheyshyam, son of Mr Indersen all from Tohana, Mr Krishen Kumar son of Mr Dev Raj of Fatehabad, Mr Suraj Ram son of Mr Pat Ram, also from Fatehabad, and Mr Sadhu Ram, son of Mr Tur Pal from a village near Tohana.

The FIR also mentions two employees of the Excise Department. They are Mr Keemti Lal Bishnoi and Mr Surender Kumar. The FIR has been registered under Sections 406,420, 468, 472 and 120-B of the Indian Penal code. No arrest has been made so far.

Preliminary enquiries reveal the involvement of three firms — Ram Mehar and Company, Tohana, Krishen Kumar and Company, Fatehabad, and Suresh Kumar and Company, Tohana. The companies are found to have duped the government of Rs 1.49 crore Rs 1.14 crore and Rs 1.25 crore, respectively.

The Haryana Government has already placed under suspension six employees, including two clerks and four excise inspectors, after their involvement was established in the scandal.

Ruling out any political pressure for the delay in the registration of the FIR official sources claimed such "white collar crimes" took a lot of time during preliminary investigations.

For reasons obvious investigations into the case have been moving very slow. There is no information available about the recovery of the amount. It is learnt that the accused firms have been trying to use their influence in negotiating slow and easy repayment of the amount.

The Deputy Commissioner did not rule out action against any official found to be involved in the fraud after due investigations. He pointed out that the Sections in the FIR included 120_B which implied action against a person found to be involved in a criminal conspiracy of any kind.

The sources claimed that arrests would be made soon and no person involved would be allowed to go scot-free.