RAIPUR : The Chhattisgarh government has suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, who was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by a special PMLA court in Raipur. The General Administration Department, that updated the civil list of the IAS officers on Wednesday, showed that the 2009-batch officer had been suspended on October 27 but it was not declared earlier.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had, during its raids conducted on October 11-12, seized `47 lakh cash along with jewellery from Vishnoi’s house. The ED then conducted searches at multiple locations of government officials, including three IAS officers, deputy secretary in CM’s office, businessmen and some Congress leaders.
Following the seizure, the ED took Vishnoi and two businessmen, Laxmikant Tiwari and Sunil Agrawal, in custody for two weeks. The court sent the trio to jail on October 27. The ED has claimed to have traced a cartel, involving bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians that entered into an alleged criminal conspiracy pertaining to a scam in which illegal levy of `25 per tonne of coal was extorted.