Ranchi, Mar 31 (PTI) Leader of the opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly Babulal Marandi on Tuesday urged Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar to direct the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to file a charge sheet in connection with the alleged liquor scam “involving around Rs 750 crore”.
The senior BJP leader charged the ACB with deliberately not filing the chargesheet to protect the accused.
Marandi, who called on the governor, requested him to take an initiative to review the role of the ACB in the investigation of the case, and hand over the probe to the CBI.
“Out of the total 17 arrested accused in connection with the case, 14 have already been granted bail due to the non-filing of the chargesheet on time. The ACB has deliberately not filed the chargesheet against them in the court within the stipulated statutory time limit of 90 days,” Marandi said in a letter submitted to the Governor.
Even after more than eight months, the ACB has not filed a single charge sheet in this case, he claimed.
The ACB arrested the then excise secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey and joint excise commissioner Gajendra Singh on May 20, 2025, in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam.
Singh got bail after 56 days of arrest on July 15, 2025, while Choubey was granted ‘default bail’ on August last year due to non-filing of the chargesheet, Marandi said.
He said that suspended IAS officer Choubey was also granted ‘default bail’ in a disproportionate assets case on Monday as the chargesheet was not filed within the stipulated period. The investigating agency was required to file the chargesheet by March 29.
“In 2022, changes were made in Jharkhand’s excise policy to benefit a syndicate, which caused heavy loss to the state’s revenue. This scam, which was initially estimated at Rs 38 crore, has now swelled to more than Rs 750 crore,” Marandi claimed in the letter to the governor.
Addressing reporters later, he alleged that a well-planned conspiracy was hatched to protect the accused.
“I met the governor today and urged him to direct ACB to file the chargesheet immediately. I also requested him to recommend that the entire investigation into this loot of the state’s treasury and the conspiracy to protect the accused be transferred to the CBI,” he said. PTI SAN NN
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