Ranchi, Jan. 10 -- In a major setback to former Hazaribagh Deputy Commissioner and suspended IAS officer Vinay Kumar Choubey, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected his regular bail application in the Hazaribagh land scam case.
The order was passed by the bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi, which took into account the seriousness of the allegations and the influential position held by the accused during his tenure.
The court observed that an IAS officer acts as the government's representative in a district and is the custodian of official records. Prima facie evidence available on record indicates that the petitioner was deeply involved in illegal land transactions through middlemen and had misused his official position to provide...