BHOPAL: A 35-year-old Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in Madhya Pradesh, who recently vented his frustration at his repeated transfers before getting a show-cause notice from the government for recording his phone conversation with a senior colleague a fortnight earlier, has complained that he has received a threat call on the Signal app.
“The caller asked me to go on a leave for six months and stay away from the media. He threatened me with dire consequences,” said Lokesh Kumar Jangid, a 2014-batch IAS officer.
Jangid has sent a formal complaint to the police and sought protection.
Madhya Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Vivek Johri said deputy inspector general Bhopal Irshad Wali was investigating the matter and will submit a report. “Further action will be taken on the basis of findings of the report,” he said.
The IAS officer, who has been transferred eight times in less than six years of service, was last month shifted out of western MP’s Barwani district within 41 days of being posted as the district’s additional collector and posted to the Rajya Siksha Kendra.
Jangid is alleged to have taped his phone conversation with Deepti Gaud Mukherjee, principal secretary of MP’s general administration department when she called him to inform him about his transfer on May 31. The IAS officer is reported to have shared the conversation with some friends.
It was, however, Jangid’s post on a group of MP IAS officers on the mobile app Signal – someone took screenshots and circulated them on social media – that turned the spotlight on him. In his post, the IAS officer had expressed his frustration at his repeated transfers, called the Civil Services Board, a panel of top bureaucrats mandated to approve all transfers to ensure stability of tenure, a joke.
Jangid also launched a broadside at his colleagues.
“Those who mint money from all kinds of Mafia, get transferred from the field to field (one field posting to another) and those with impeccable integrity get thrown to the secretariat on transfer,” he said in the post.
“Of Course who’s who in the bureaucracy are mere Nero’s guests these days. The same thing happened in Shahdol when I was SDM. I told the collector that he’s a weak collector, which he bloody was. And I was removed on that ground as he has a relationship with a politician,” said Jangid in the post that has gone viral
ICP Keshari, president of MP’s IAS association, reprimanded him and told him to delete the post. “You lost basic decency- not only accusing your colleagues but also the family. Please delete all your posts soon. That’s my sincere advice and desist from such things in future.” Jangid refused and was removed from the group.
On Wednesday, when the screenshots went viral, the state government issued him notice for recording his phone conversation with principal secretary Deepti Gaud Mukherjee.
By Friday, the controversy over Jangid’s post turned political.
The Congress attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government for transferring Jangid. Congress MLA Bala Baccchan alleged that the IAS officer was eased out because he had exposed “financial irregularities in purchase of oxygen concentrator and stopped the payment of a company.”
BJP leader and cabinet minister Vishwas Sarang, however, said: “Jangid’s behaviour is inappropriate with his seniors and whatever he posted and later circulated on social media is against the civil services rules.”
