Officials said the Excise Department of the Government of Chhattisgarh on Thursday suspended 22 out of 29 officers, who recently charged for alleged involvement in the alleged liquor scam by the state’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW), said the officials. The remaining seven officers have retired from service.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating the money laundering aspect of the liquor scam, is a syndicate of senior state bureaucrats, politicians and officials of the Excise Department.
The agency has accused the department of running a “parallel” excise department, in which liquor was sold to the public, but the state’s treasury was not deposited.
Out of 22 accused officers who have been suspended, three are Assistant District Producer Officers, Five are sub -accused, ten are Assistant Commissioners, three district excise officers and one assistant excise officer.
The EOW supplementary charge sheet on July 7 also increased the total funds lost in the scam by Rs 3,200 crore with the earlier amount of Rs 2,161crose by the ED to Rs 3,200 crore.
Explaining his roles in the scam, an eow press statement said, “Between 2019 and 2023, these officials were working in 15 big districts in districts or other posts, where the United Nations liquor shops were sold parallel to liquor paying liquor in liquor shops, and some officials were used to coordinate at the state level for this illegal liquor,”
“… According to the instructions of the Excise Syndicate, the distilleries produced additional liquor, loaded into trucks and sent directly into the liquor shops of the country with high sales in selected districts. Such liquor was sold parallel to legal liquor, which was brought on the basis of demand from the warehouse/government depot to the distillery.
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Excise officials received a commission from illegal liquor sale.
While former excise minister Kavasi Lakhma is arrested by Ed, the Central Agency is investigating the role of former CM Bhupesh Bagel and his son Chaitanya in the scam.
The ED had filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR) in January last year, against the alleged mastermind of the liquor scam, Anwar Dheber, the brother of the former Raipur Mayor Aizaz Dheber; Retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja, Joint Secretary in the then Chhattisgarh; Its Arun Pati Tripathi, the then Special Secretary Department of Government Commerce and Industry and MD, CG State Marketing Corporation Limited; And another. Dhabar, Tutaza and Tripathi have also been arrested by the ED in the case.
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