Jharkhand IAS officer Vinay Kumar Choubey arrested in excise scam case

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday arrested senior IAS officer Vinay Kumar Choubey in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged Jharkhand excise scam, an official said.

Choubey, arrested after hours of interrogation, was produced before the court of ACB special judge Yogesh Kumar.

The 1999-batch officer has held several key posts, including secretary to the chief minister, and is currently posted as principal secretary, department of Panchayati Raj.

The ACB began an inquiry into the allegation of irregularities in excise policy during his tenure as secretary of the excise department. The state government earlier permitted the registration of an FIR against Choubey.

An ACB team reached Choubey's residence in the morning and took him to the agency's headquarters in Ranchi for interrogation.

The joint commissioner of the excise department, Gajendra Singh, was also interrogated by the ACB.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided premises linked to Choubey and Singh in October last year as part of its investigation into the alleged excise scam.

The ED then also raided the premises of several state government officials, liquor businessmen and others.

Searches were conducted at 15 premises in Ranchi and Raipur, the capital of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, after a criminal case was registered by the Jharkhand zonal office of the federal probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had taken cognisance of a 7 September 2024 FIR filed by the Chhattisgarh Police ACB at Raipur naming Choubey, retired Chhattisgarh IAS officer Anil Tuteja, Anwar Dhebar, who is the elder brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, Indian Telecom Service officer Arunpati Tripathi, and several others.