New Delhi: A chief secretary-rank IAS officer has accused P.K. Mishra, additional principal secretary to the prime minister, and three other senior bureaucrats of committing atrocities against him under the SC/ST Act, and thwarting his career growth due to caste bias.
Jagmohan Singh Raju, a 1985-Batch Tamil Nadu cadre officer, sought to register an FIR against the four accused with the Virugambakkam police last week. However, the police refused to accept the complaint, prompting Raju to approach the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). The NCSC subsequently directed the police commissioner of Chennai to submit all facts in the case to the commission within two days.
Raju has alleged that the accused have “conspired” to block his empanelment as additional secretary since the year 2015, despite an “impeccable” service record. While Raju’s batch got empanelled for the post of secretary — the top level of the civil service hierarchy — in 2017, he is yet to be elevated as additional secretary, a rank lower.
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The FIR has still not been registered by the Tamil Nadu police, but ThePrint has accessed a copy of the complaint, which states that the accused are “occupying powerful positions and there was a high probability that they might misuse their influence and clout to even prevent the registration of FIR and investigation and interfere with investigation”.
‘Major apprehension’
Raju, who had earlier sent a notice to the PMO and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) seeking the removal and prosecution of Chief Vigilance Commissioner K.V. Chaudhary under the SC/ST Act, has also expressed “a major apprehension” in his complaint — that after the submission of the complaint, “the accused might further harass and intimate not only me but also my family with the help of agencies like CBI, ED, Income Tax Department etc. and by forging false cases against me”.
“I also apprehend threat to mine and my family’s life and limb as warned by many of my well-wishers,” he has said.
Raju, who is currently serving as the commissioner of land reforms (additional chief secretary), government of Tamil Nadu, has thus sought “necessary protection” against any such “harassment, intimidation and threat to life”.
Mishra and Chaudhary did not respond to calls by ThePrint.
Apart from Mishra and Chaudhary, Raju has also accused Kabindra Joshi and G. Srinivasan, who have both been under secretaries in the DoPT.
Raju’s detailed allegations
According to Raju’s 13-page complaint, the four accused have used “false and frivolous allegations motivated by their caste bias” to ensure that he is not empanelled as additional secretary or secretary to the government of India.
In 2013, when Raju was posted as a joint secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, some closed pseudonymous complaints were filed against him. The complaints pertained to alleged corruption by Raju, but since they were investigated and closed the same year, not much is known about them.
The inquiries were arbitrarily reopened in 2015 at the time of his empanelment, Raju has alleged.
“The continued retention of such entries despite my exoneration and repeated requests to delete the same displays the sinister work of the accused persons to subvert the cause of justice,” Raju has said.
“In this calculated fashion, the accused persons have ensured that I will forever be prevented from occupying positions of higher responsibility in the government during my remaining service and even after superannuation.
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“The agenda of caste-based discrimination against me has succeeded, and will continue to cause me irreparable stigma and mental torture and prejudice at workplace and society until urgent action is taken against these persons. The similarities in approach (of the four accused) make me suspect that there is a larger conspiracy afoot to perpetuate such caste-based discrimination against me.”
Through “calculated efforts”, all four of the accused have populated his vigilance record with “false and frivolous information” to establish that he is an officer with “dubious integrity”, Raju has alleged.