The bureaucracy in Uttar Pradesh is at war. Senior PCS officer Hari Shankar Pandey has moved the court, three days after the state government charge-sheeted him of tampering with the documents while exposing the multi-crore scam in the rural engineering department (RED).
Mr Pandey, earlier this week, had filed a complaint with the Lucknow police against three senior IAS officers — principal secretary appointment Rajiv Kumar, principal secretary social welfare Sanjeev Dubey and principal secretary rural engineering department Ashok Kumar for trying to implicate him on false charges.
The court has directed the station officer of Gomti Nagar police station to register an FIR against the three IAS officers. The court will hear the case on July 15.
Mr Pandey has filed the application in the court of chief judicial magistrate Lucknow under section 156 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking its intervention in the matter.
This is the first time that senior government officials have announced an open war against their peers.
“I am being targeted deliberately and will not take this lying down,” said Mr Hari Shankar Pandey.
The UP IAS Association distanced itself from the issue saying that it was a personal matter between the concerned officials and does not come within their purview.
A senior member of the Association, however, said that the matter had taken an ugly turn with the officer going to the police and then the court.
“The officer Mr Pandey should have first taken up the matter with the chief secretary who could have resolved it across the table. By going to the police and the court, the matter has come into the public domain which is unfortunate,” he said.