VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 24: BJP’s Godda MP Nishikant Dubey ruffled Jharkhand bureaucracy by claiming that the Enforcement Directorate has summoned Excise and Prohibition secretary Vinay Choubey in the money laundering case.
Dubey shared a message on his Twitter handle that the ED has decided to call Vinay Choubey for questioning to know about the inside story of the changes in the excise policy of Jharkhand. On being asked Nishikant Dubey said that he believed that Vinay Choubey would appear before the ED anytime between June 29 to July 4. He said that Vinay Choubey thrice changed the excise policy to benefit some private persons.
Choubey is secretary of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The ED is investigating one of the money laundering cases related to liquor trade in Jharkhand. Power broker Prem Prakash and liquor baron Yogendra Tiwari are the two known beneficiaries of the changed excise policy. But there are other powerful players of the liquor syndicate who reaped benefits out of the new policy. It was alleged that during the previous excise policy of the Hemant Soren government, different shell companies were floated by liquor syndicates to get the liquor trade right for individual districts. The syndicate got exclusive trade rights to 22 out of 24 districts. The ED had also questioned Yogendra Tiwari.
But people familiar with the probe were not sure whether the senior IAS Vinay Choubey had been summoned. “I really can’t say whether such a stage of investigation has arrived where the ED would summon him. ED is investigating MNREGA case related to IAS Pooja Singhal and the chargesheet will have to be filed by July 7. There are mining related cases also,” said one.
Vinay Choubey did not respond to a phone call to know whether he was called by the ED.
