The Jharkhand-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested retired IAS officer and former Excise Commissioner Amit Prakash in connection with its investigation in the Jharkhand liquor scam on Tuesday-his sixth arrest in the mother.
Prakash, who was presented before an ACB court on Tuesday and sent to judicial custody for 14 days, served as the Managing Director of Jharkhand State Beverage Corporation Limited (JSBCL) and retired from service on 31 December 2024.
He is the second IAS officer to be arrested in the case after Vinay Kumar Choubey, former Principal Secretary and Managing Director of East-JSBCL.
This comes when the ACB arrested Vinay Kumar Choubey and Joint Commissioner of Excise Gajendra Singh on 20 May when the agency accused the FAR bank guarantee using irregularities in contracting placement agencies using the FAR bank guarantee.
The FIR claims that the treasury suffered a loss of Rs 38 crore due to alleged fraud.
As ACBLighting, as Excise Commissioner, had the right to encounter bank guarantee from placement agencies to recover outstanding for JSBCL, but took no action. He was allegedly clear during interrogation.
On May 21 – A day after Choubey’s arrest – three others, former JSBCL General Manager (Finance) Sudhir Kumar Das, former GM (Finance and Operations) Sudhir Kumar, and Neeraj Kumar Singh, a local representative of the placement agency Mission, were arrested in the case.
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According to the ACB, in November 2024, Prakash authorized the Chhattisgarh Dishita Ventures and Om Sai Beverage without informing the Product Minister without paying more than Rs 11 crore to two liquor supply companies. Payments for the pending arrears since 2022 were reportedly made despite four Chhattisgarh-based placement agencies-the claims of ACB are part of the same syndicate-Blackist and due to about Rs 450 crore for the Jharkhand government.
The state has contacted the Supreme Court to recover the amount.
The ACB claims that these payments were approved just a month before the retirement of light.
DGP Anurag Gupta – Head of Jharkhand ACB – did not respond to calls and texts for a comment.
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Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded CBI intervention in the matter, claiming that they warned the public and the state government about the scam in 2022.
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