RANCHI: For more than two decades, a small technology venture in eastern India has been at the center of an increasingly tangled dispute involving a suspended senior bureaucrat, his former business partner, and allegations that span forgery, coercion, and the misuse of government authority. A new criminal complaint filed in Ranchi has revived long-standing accusations and raised fresh questions about the porous boundary between public power and private enterprise.
A Bureaucrat, a Business, and Years of Silence
When Deepak Kumar walked into Ranchi’s Jagannathpur police station earlier this year to file a complaint, it was the first time in nearly two decades that he had publicly challenged Vinay Kumar Choubey, a suspended Indian Administrative Service officer once posted in Jharkhand.
In his complaint, Mr. Kumar alleges that he remained silent for years out of fear—fear, he says, of false criminal cases that Mr. Choubey allegedly threatened to bring against him, and of being jailed if he resisted. Only when he saw reports that the officer had been incarcerated in connection with unrelated liquor and land-scam investigations, he says, did he feel safe enough to come forward.
Police have registered the case, No. 458/25, naming Mr. Choubey and Mr. Kumar’s former business partner, Vinay Kumar Singh, as accused. Both men have faced legal scrutiny in other matters, though neither has been convicted in relation to Mr. Kumar’s claims. Efforts to reach them for comment were unsuccessful.
Claims of Coercion, Transfers of Wealth, and a Collapsing Partnership
According to the complaint, the relationship among the three men dates back to 2002, when Mr. Kumar and Mr. Singh co-founded a technology firm called NextGen Solutions Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The company soon secured a profitable dealership with Mahindra & Mahindra, and business grew quickly.
It was around this time, Mr. Kumar alleges, that Mr. Singh introduced him to Mr. Choubey, then a rising IAS officer. What began as a professional connection, he says, evolved into a sustained effort by the officer and Mr. Singh to “take control” of the business as its revenues increased.
Central to the complaint are allegations that Mr. Kumar was pressured at times under threat of arrest to sign documents he did not fully understand, including a purported settlement agreement with Mr. Singh. On the same day, Mr. Kumar alleges, 44 lakh rupees were transferred from company accounts to a private account owned by Mr. Singh’s wife. He claims that the same amount was later forced back into the firm’s account through a check taken from him under duress.
Mr. Kumar also accuses Mr. Choubey of leveraging his official position to intimidate him, including securing the arrest of Mr. Kumar in what he describes as a fabricated criminal case.
The Business Unravels as Personal Ties Deepen
Mr. Kumar claims that Mr. Singh, with Mr. Choubey’s backing, attempted to transfer half of his shares in 2003 without his knowledge and altered signatures on bank documents. While the bank later reinstated the original records, the move marked the beginning of an unraveling partnership.
By 2006, when Mr. Choubey was serving as a district official in Palamu, the complaint alleges that contracts worth millions for medical equipment supplies were directed to a company associated with Mr. Kumar and Mr. Singh. Mr. Kumar asserts that this revenue stream intensified efforts to remove him from the company altogether.
He further claims that Mr. Choubey pressured the firm to appoint his elder brother, Manoj Kumar Choubey now deceased as general manager, and that Mr. Singh’s wife was authorized to operate company bank accounts without proper consent. Both allegations reflect what Mr. Kumar describes as a sustained pattern of encroachment, culminating in his eventual marginalization from the enterprise he helped create.
A Fresh Case Amid Old Questions
The new FIR in Ranchi consolidates years of accusations: criminal conspiracy, fraud, intimidation, and unlawful seizure of business assets. Investigators are now expected to examine bank documents, corporate filings, and correspondence from the early 2000s—records that may be difficult to reconstruct.
