The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday arrested senior Jharkhand IAS officer Vinay Kumar Choubey in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam in the state, an official said.
Choubey was taken to Birsa Munda Central Jail at Hotwar after a special court remanded him to judicial custody till June 3.
He was arrested after hours of interrogation by ACB. He is accused of irregularities during his previous tenure as Excise Secretary. The ACB claims that his alleged fraudulent actions and corrupt practices caused a ₹38 crore loss to the state exchequer.
The government has formally permitted the registration of an FIR against him.
The excise department joint commissioner Gajendra Singh was also arrested and sent to jail in the same case.
Choubey, a 1999-batch IAS officer, had held several key posts, including Secretary to the CM Hemant Soren. He is currently posted as Principal Secretary, Department of Panchayati Raj.
The state government earlier gave permission to register an FIR against Choubey.
An ACB team reached Choubey's residence in the morning and took him to the agency's headquarters here for interrogation.
He was later arrested and produced before the court of ACB special judge Yogesh Kumar.
“He has been sent to judicial custody till June 3,” his lawyer Devesh Ajmani told reporters.
“We don't have any information on what grounds the ACB arrested him. He has medical conditions and we submitted medical reports before the court,” Ajmani said.
The ACB also interrogated before arresting Gajendra Singh.
ED had also conducted raids in this case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided premises linked to Choubey and Singh in October last year as part of its investigation into the 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 has taken cognisance of a September 7, 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.
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