Chhattisgarh suspends tainted IAS officer

The Chhattisgarh government finally suspended Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer B L Agrawal after Income Tax officials raided his house and the premises owned by his relatives on February 4.

The IAS official of 1988 batch was placed under suspension on Wednesday after a report received by the state government from the IT department, government spokesperson said.

Though Agrawal has been denying his involvement in amassing huge disproportionate assets, I-T officials claimed that the officer had his role and was also instrumental in opening 220 bank accounts in the name of poor people hailing from Kharora village.

Sources said that the state government had also handed over the matter to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), the anti-corruption establishment to probe the complaints received against the senior IAS official.

Agrawal is, however, maintaining that the I-T raid was aimed at tarnishing his image as the officials had found a cash of just Rs 6 lakh from his possession and he had disclosed the source of income. "My family owns big business and I have nothing to do with it," Agrawal said.