Madhya Pradesh: Congress questions EOW after only 9 chargesheets filed in 23,000 complaints

Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh lodged a strong protest against the working of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), alleging the delay in the investigation of corruption complaints.

Grewal, in the Assembly, cited a written reply received by him from the state government, as it informed the Assembly that 23,261 complaints were received along with EOW between 2020 and June 2026 and chargesheet against the accused had been filed only in nine cases.

The Assembly reply stated that a total of 3,018 complaints had been properly registered and 756 complaints had been closed. For the other 19,487 complaints, it did not explicitly say if they had been addressed or would be addressed, leaving many doubts about the agency’s effectiveness and transparency.

The complainants are also often not told if their complaints have been filed, closed, or kept pending, Grewal also found, indicating a lack of transparency in the processes.

The Congress MLA also said, out of 3018 complaints, the FIR was registered in just 258 cases. Of these, only nine cases went as far as filing chargesheets in court in the past six-and-a-half years.

He also said that in some cases, it took the EOW almost six years to register an FIR.

Grewal also pointed out that the EOW had refused to take this up from any other department that had been accused of corrupt activity, and was merely sending it back to the same department that had been accused of corruption in the sewerage project in Ratlam.

He has called on the government to restructure how the EOW operates, while providing quarterly updates to complainants to create greater transparency and accountability within the EOW’s actions.