Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], May 20 : Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday arrested IAS officer Vinay Chaubey in connection with the liquor scam case, officials said.
A Joint Commissioner of the Excise Department has also been arrested in connection with the case, they added.
Chaubey, who was the then Secretary of the Jharkhand Excise Department, had earlier been named in the case by the Chhattisgarh ACB in September 2024.
Based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Chhattisgarh ACB, the Jharkhand ACB had initiated a preliminary enquiry (PE) to probe the matter.
Currently, Chaubey is serving as the Principal Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Department and had previously held the post of Secretary to Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Along with IAS officer Vinay Chaubey, the ACB also arrested Gajendra Singh, Joint Commissioner of the Excise Department. Both have been sent to judicial custody till June 3 (15 days).
After their arrest, Advocate Devesh Ajmani said, "This morning, while Vijay Choubey was in his residential chamber, he was taken in for an investigation, thereafter, he was produced before the court and subsequently taken into custody. By filing an objection petition to this, we apprised the court that as per the settled principles of law by the Supreme Court, we were not given the grounds of arrest, we were never told as to what we were being charged for."
"The court has taken note of all these things. We have also made sure that his health records are submitted before the court... There are two accused, one is Vinay Choubey, the other is Gajender Kumar Singh. They have been sent to 15 days' custody," he added.
Earlier, in October 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had conducted raids at the premises of Chaubey and others in connection with the alleged liquor scam in Jharkhand's Ranchi.
In August 2024, the ED in Raipur had arrested two individuals under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of its ongoing investigation into the liquor scam in Chhattisgarh.
The ED launched its investigation based on an FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Chhattisgarh, under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The agency's probe revealed that corruption in the liquor scam, which occurred between 2019 and 2022, was carried out through multiple methods.