RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh government suspended 22 excise officials on Thursday after the state Bureau for Investigation of Economic Offences (EOW) filed a chargesheet against them in the alleged liquor scam before a special court on July 7. The EOW named 29 excise officials as accused, seven of whom have retired.The suspended officials are stated to have secured commission of over Rs 88 crore during 2019 to 2023, when Chhattisgarh was ruled by the Bhupesh Bagehl-led Congress government. The charge-sheet stated that on the basis of previous calculations, this liquor scam was believed to be around Rs 2,161 crore, including all types of commissions and sale of additional country liquor without duty paid in the shops.“The fresh investigation however revealed the alleged scam was worth over Rs 3,200 crore,” it added.The officials implicated in the scam include district and assistant district excise officers, assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners of excise, who were posted between 2019 and 2023, in 15 districts where unaccounted liquor was sold in government liquor shops, the EOW said.
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