The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted raids at different locations linked to Jharkhand-cadre IAS officer Vinay Kumar Chaubey, excise department officer Gajendra Singh, and several firms in connection with the Chhattisgarh liquor scam.
“Number of locations must be 15 where the ED raid started early in the morning,” people aware of the development in ED said. A senior ED officer acknowledged that the raids took place in Ranchi and Raipur.
Notably, Chhattisgarh’s Anti-Corruption Bureau and Economic Offence Wing (EOW) have filed a first information report (FIR) against seven people, including the IAS officer, for allegedly creating a massive loss to the state exchequer and changing the state’s liquor laws.
The ED action comes after the Supreme Court denied joint excise commissioner’s request to quash the FIR.
In September, Chhattisgarh's anti-corruption bureau and Economic Offence Wing (WOW) filed an FIR against a syndicate comprising seven individuals, including Vinay Kumar Chaubey, who was the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Hemant Soren when the 2022 Excise Policy was implemented in Jharkhand. Choubey is currently the Principal Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Department. According to the FIR, the syndicate allegedly caused a huge loss to the exchequer, thereby changing the liquor policy in the neighbouring state.
The premises of Choubey, currently the secretary of Jharkhand Panchayati Raj department, joint secretary of excise department of the state Gajendra Singh, liquor traders and linked persons were searched.
Sources said the ED sleuths seized some incriminating papers during raids, which will prove vital for the ongoing investigation. There was no report of seizure of any cash till the report was filed.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already interrogated both the officers in the context of their alleged involvement in the liquor scam.
Chaubey happens to be the fifth IAS officer in Jharkhand who is being investigated by the ED. Others included Pooja Singhal, Chhavi Ranjan, Manish Ranjan and Ram Niwas Yadav.
The timing of ED raid is important when the process for Assembly election has commenced. BJP state president Babulal Marandi on several occasions has raised the voice about liquor scam in Jharkhand.
Marandi had said that like the liquor scam in Delhi and Chhattisgarh, a similar scam has been committed in Jharkhand too and the chief minister is also an "equal partner" in it.
He had raised the question about interrogation of two state cadre officers in a liquor scam in Chhattisgarh.
Both the officers have been questioned by the ED about the supply of liquor from Chhattisgarh. Liquor is being sold in Jharkhand under the new liquor policy on the Chhattisgarh model for the last one year. Due to this, the Jharkhand government had lost revenue of about 450 crores in the last financial year.
