IAS officer Vinay Kumar Choubey, currently embroiled in the Jharkhand liquor scam, has been released on bail by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court. The alleged scam, estimated at 100 crore, resulted in a loss of 38 crore in revenue for the Jharkhand government. According to Choubey’s legal representative, Devesh Ajmani, the ACB did not submit a chargesheet within the mandated 90-day timeframe, leading to a default bail application. The court’s ruling stipulates that Choubey is prohibited from leaving the state without prior authorization and must maintain his current mobile number throughout the trial period. Furthermore, he is required to furnish two personal sureties of 25,000 rupees each. If Choubey requires travel outside the state, he is obliged to seek permission from the court.
On May 20, the ACB summoned Vinay Kumar Choubey, a senior IAS officer from the 1999 batch, for questioning concerning the liquor scam in Jharkhand. After undergoing extensive interrogation, he was presented before the court and placed in judicial custody. In 2022, Jharkhand adopted a new excise policy modeled after the Chhattisgarh system. Despite expectations of enhanced revenue, this policy instead led to a revenue shortfall of roughly 38 crore for the Jharkhand government. Contributing factors to this loss included the involvement of a Chhattisgarh-based syndicate, along with the circulation of counterfeit holograms and the illicit distribution of alcoholic beverages.
In October 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on the residences of Vinay Kumar Choubey, Joint Secretary Gajendra Singh, and other individuals linked to the liquor scam. Reacting to Choubey’s bail, Babulal Marandi, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand and now the Leader of the Opposition, expressed his concerns on social media platform X. He asserted that the ACB deliberately refrained from filing a chargesheet within 90 days against Hemant Soren’s former secretary, thereby paving the way for his bail. Marandi alleged that the Hemant government orchestrated the arrest to impede the ED’s investigation and to conceal crucial evidence. He called upon the ED to take decisive action against the corrupt officials involved in the misappropriation of public funds, amounting to thousands of crores. Vinay Kumar Choubey previously held the positions of Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Chief Electoral Officer of Jharkhand.