New Delhi: Senior Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) Vinay Kumar Choubey was arrested on Tuesday by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Chhattisgarh in connection with a multi-crore liquor scam that allegedly caused significant financial losses to the Jharkhand state exchequer.
Choubey, a 1999 batch IAS officer, was serving as the Principal Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Department at the time of his arrest. Previously, he held key positions such as the Excise Secretary and the Principal Secretary to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren during the implementation of the 2022 excise policy.
A FIR was filed in September 2024 by the agency’s economic offence wing against then excise secretary Choubey for the losses that was being incurred by the state, according to a report in Times of India.
It also mentions the names of former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, businessman Anwar Dheber, ex-managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Arunpanth Tripathi, IAS officer and former excise commissioner of Chhattisgarh Niranjan Das, and Arvind Singh. All of them belong to Chhattisgarh.
The FIR claims that they have been allegedly involved in a syndicate to conspire with Jharkhand officials to alter the existing excise policy of the state.
It also notes that Choubey and then-Joint Excise Commissioner Singh, with the support of their seniors manipulated tender norms according to their interests.
The Jharkhand government’s Personnel Department received a formal letter from the Chhattisgarh ACB asking for authorization to file a lawsuit against both officials. The ACB’s findings, which connected Chaubey to purported corruption and irregularities in the liquor distribution and procurement system, prompted the request.
They were also involved in the unaccounted selling of domestic liquor with fake holograms and the unlawful production of foreign liquor to prefer companies which earned them commissions worth crores.
In October 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at 17 locations in both Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, including Choubey’s residence and several other key locations linked to him and other officials, as part of a money laundering investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
