Overview
- The Economic Offences Wing filed its fourth supplementary chargesheet on July 7, naming 29 excise officials accused of running a parallel network to divert duty-free liquor sales between 2019 and 2023.
- Investigators revised the scam’s estimated value from ₹2,161 crore to over ₹3,200 crore and identified more than ₹88 crore in illicit commissions paid to implicated officers.
- Twenty-two serving excise officials were suspended on July 10 and 13 people, including former minister Kawasi Lakhma, remain in custody under multiple charges.
- The Enforcement Directorate has registered an FIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and attached assets worth over ₹6 crore in an ongoing probe.
- Authorities allege a syndicate of senior bureaucrats, politicians and excise officers supplied untaxed country liquor through government shops in 15 districts, denying revenue to the state exchequer.