No end to row over Bihar IAS officer Nilesh Deore using chartered flight with family

Patna: There seems to be no end to the controversy over an IAS officer Nilesh Ramchandra Deore using a chartered flight and travelling from New Delhi to Patna with his family.

Shorty after the Opposition, led by RJD MLA Jagdish Sharma, raised a question in the Assembly asking the Government to clarify from where did an IAS officer earn so much that he could afford a chartered flight with his family, the Nitish Kumar government has defended the 2011-batch Bihar cadre officer Nilesh.

“The chartered flight was coming from New Delhi to Patna for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Nilesh, who was the Secretary of Bihar’s Civil Aviation Department, travelled in the chartered plane with his family from New Delhi to Patna, as it had no other passengers. ‘Aa gaye plane se toh kaun sa paap kar diya’ (If he travelled by the chartered plane, what crime has he done?),” said Ashok Choudhary, Minister for Rural Works Department in Bihar, while defending the IAS officer.

Caste colour

The Minister, who is also the closest aide of Nitish, added more fuel to the fire by saying, “Is the officer being targeted just because he is a Dalit? Doesn't a Dalit have a right to travel by plane?”

The Congress came out in defence of the RJD when party spokesperson Asit Nath Twari said, “No corrupt officer is entitled to use a chartered flight, irrespective of the caste.”

The RJD was more forthcoming. “We just want to know whether any payment was made on behalf of the IAS officer using a chartered flight with his family? If yes, who paid for it? If no, on whose instruction it was a free ride?, asked the RJD spokesperson Ejaz Ahmed.

In the eye of the storm

The chartered flight in question flew-in in June 2025 from New Delhi to Patna. The matter was, however, raised in the Bihar Assembly recently. The Rural Works Minister Ashok Choudhary’s cryptic reply “What crime has he (the IAS officer) done if he took a chartered flight” came on Tuesday with the Opposition expressing dismay over the Government defending the IAS officer for something which is very uncommon.

Who is Nilesh Deore?

Originally from Nashik in Maharashtra, Nilesh is a qualified MBBS doctor who cleared the UPSC and became a 2011-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer. Nilesh has served as District Magistrate of Madhubani, Banka and Saran before being elevated in the Civil Aviation Department. He was earlier Private Secretary to Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia before returning to his parent cadre.

“Instead of giving a caste colour and playing a Dalit victim card, the Government should simply clarify on three points: From where did an IAS officer earn so much to hire a chartered flight? If not, who paid the bill for the chartered flight? And third, is it not a misuse of official power and position,” said the Congress spokesperson.