After Vyapam, another scam has been unearthed in Madhya Pradesh which involves top officers. The first whistle on the scam has been blown by an IRS (Indian Revenue Service) officer, Sravan Kumar Bansal of 2009 batch who is now posted as assistant commissioner in Bhilai. The officer claims that two officers including the then chief commissioner of the central excise department SKS Somwanshi (MP&CG) has incurred a loss of 600 crore by giving undue favours to a Madhya Pradesh based Gutka company.

The officer Sravan Bansal claims that he and his pregnant wife (who is also an IRS officer of same batch), were transferred from Bhopal to Cochin and other places with malafide intention by his superior when he refused to favour the company. CBI has taken up the complaint for investigations.

The Times of India has reported that as per the complaint lodged with the CBI, M/s Kaipan intended to install high speed machines to evade the central excise duty. The machines were purchased from M/s Uflex industries whose chairman Ashok Chaturvedi has been arrested by the CBI for bribing the then central excise Delhi zone for helping the tobacco and pan masala companies in evading tax. He further wrote that the new machines purchased from M/s Uflex was costing 90, 00,000 per machine whereas the earlier ones operational at M/s Kaipan had been priced at only Rs 60,000 so proper verification of the machines were necessary.

“I as a revenue officer committed to my duties was inclined to take any decision on the matter with due examination, diligence, and appropriate precautionary steps to protect the government revenue in accordance with the Pan Masala Rules 2008. But on the contrary, the then Chief Commissioner SKS Somvanshi was pressurizing me to act in favour of Gutka lobby and install these high speed machines without proper examination and due diligence. That Somvanshi was hand in glove with the gutka manufacturer is also clearly evident from the copy of his call details during the period of purchase and installation of these highly sophisticated high speed machines,” Bansal said to The Times of India reporter.