Two buddies - JMM chief and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and his erstwhile Principal Secretary, IAS officer Vinay Kumar Choubey, have fallen out over a mysterious, Shakespearean rupture: an “Et tu, Brute?” moment that has unsettled the state bureaucracy.
Choubey, who previously served as Excise Secretary and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, was once considered Soren’s eyes and ears within the administration. What went wrong - whether a breach of trust, clash of interests, or outright betrayal - remains unclear. Following the fallout, Soren, facing a money laundering probe himself, booked Choubey in multiple corruption cases, including the alleged liquor scam, disproportionate assets, and irregularities in forest land dealings, ultimately sending him to jail. The repercussions are now rippling through Choubey’s family, including his wife and in-laws.
This is Soren’s second consecutive term as Chief Minister. While the BJP had long alleged a liquor scam in the state, the JMM dismissed those claims as politically motivated. “Now the Jharkhand government suddenly realises there was corruption in the Excise Department under Choubey. A decade-old forest land case has been revived, and his disproportionate assets are being scrutinised. Something triggered this reaction, and actions are moving unprecedentedly,” an administrative officer said on condition of anonymity.
The sudden involvement of the state’s notoriously sluggish Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), historically focused on lower-level officers, to investigate a top bureaucrat shocked many. Yet the elite bureaucracy cannot entirely distance itself from the state’s persistent decay and corruption. An uneasy calm now prevails, with officials wary of who might be the proverbial Brutus.
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Three IAS officers - Karn Satyarthi (Deputy Commissioner, East Singhbhum), Faiz Aq Ahmed (Deputy Commissioner, Ramgarh), and Ameet Kumar (former Excise Commissioner) - have deposed against Choubey under Section 164 of the CrPC, claiming they were pressured to implement illegal orders while he was Excise Secretary. Choubey allegedly leveraged his proximity to the political executive to coerce compliance.
Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi questioned the credibility of these statements. “Did these officers ever object to Choubey’s verbal orders before the Chief Secretary or CM? Did they record objections in writing? Their statements appear tailored and strikingly similar. Are some powerful individuals being shielded?” he asked.
Senior bureaucrats acknowledged the structural imbalance: Choubey’s close ties with the Chief Minister and influence over postings left junior officers fearing career stagnation. “Silence often becomes a survival strategy,” noted a retired IAS officer.
Amid whispers of Brutus and Judas, the corridors of power in Jharkhand remain alive with tales of bureaucratic battles for influence and favour with the Chief Minister. Choubey’s fall is widely viewed as part of this intricate power struggle.
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