NEW DELHI: Anti-corruption bureau on Tuesday arrested senior Jharkhand IASVinay Kumar Choubey for his alleged role in the Jharkhand liquor scam after hours of interrogation.This comes after the agency began an enquiry into the allegation of irregularities in excise policy during his tenure as secretary of the excise department.Earlier in September 2024, the agency's economic offence wing had filed an FIR against then excise secretary Choubey alleging to have caused significant financial loss to Jharkhand's exchequer by altering the state's liquor policy.

The FIR also names former IAS officer Anil Tuteja, businessman Anwar Dheber, ex-managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Arunpati Tripathi, IAS officer and former excise commissioner of Chhattisgarh Niranjan Das, and Arvind Singh—all from Chhattisgarh.

The FIR claims they formed a syndicate to conspire with Jharkhand officials to amend the state's excise policy, awarding liquor supply tenders to syndicate members and causing financial losses between 2022 and 2023.The FIR alleges the syndicate sold unaccounted domestic liquor with fake holograms and unlawfully provided foreign alcohol to preferred companies, earning illegal commissions worth crores of rupees.

The complaint also notes that Choubey and then-Joint Excise Commissioner Singh, with the support of their seniors, manipulated tender norms to favor the syndicate, including a mandatory turnover condition that Jharkhand firms could not meet due to the previous contracting system.As part of their plan, Dhebar and Tripathi met Jharkhand officials in January 2022 to propose replacing the existing contract system with Chhattisgarh's distribution model. This plan, approved during a meeting held in Raipur, was aimed at generating illegal profits from the liquor business.