New Delhi: The Delhi Police have lodged an FIR under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act over allegations that harassment, including through casteist slurs, by Saroj Sharma, chairperson of the Centre-run National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), led to her driver taking his own life, ThePrint has learnt.
Ram Kumar Pawar allegedly died by suicide at his Yadav Nagar home on the intervening night of 27 and 28 September. This was days after he wrote to the secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy, and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, accusing Sharma of insulting him over his caste and “illegally and arbitrarily” transferring him to the NIOS regional centre in Bengaluru from its Noida headquarters.
The Department of School Education and Literacy, which comes under the Ministry of Education, which comes under the education ministry, had written to Sharma on the same, seeking an action taken report.
In a purported suicide note left behind by Ram Kumar, Sharma is named as the person “responsible for my death”. When contacted by ThePrint, a senior Delhi Police officer said the FIR was registered at Samaypur Badli police station following a complaint lodged by Ram Kumar’s son Abhi Pawar.
Although Sharma has not been made an accused in the FIR — a copy of which ThePrint has seen — it names her in the complaint. The FIR was registered on 28 September under Section 108 (abetment of suicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as sections 3(2)(V) and 3(2)(VII) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Public servants attract charges under Section 3(2)(VII) for offences under the Act.
When contacted, Sharma said: “I am currently abroad. I have come to know about his death but I don’t know what the allegations are.”
ThePrint also reached the NIOS from comment. Its spokesperson also said that Sharma is abroad, and that the institute was not aware of the allegations against her and had not even received the communication from the Ministry of Education.
The NIOS, a national board at par with the CBSE or CISCE, is the largest open schooling system globally with a cumulative enrollment of over 40 lakh in the last five years. Sharma took over as NIOS chairperson in December 2020.
Sharma, who was a member of a consultation committee for the formulation of the National Education Policy (NEP), has in the past spoken about medieval history getting more space in Indian school textbooks rather than history of ancient India.
In September 2021, addressing a government event, she had said that the “challenge before the Indian education system today is to inculcate Indian ethos into the minds of young children through integration of Bharatiya arts, literature, and culture in the curriculum”.
In a July interview to RSS mouthpiece Organiser, Sharma had said NIOS will help students “achieve heights in life with Indian values”.
‘I will show you the status of your caste’
According to the FIR, Sharma started harassing Ram Kumar after coming to know that he was from an SC community.
Three days before Ram Kumar allegedly died by suicide, the Department of School Education and Literacy had forwarded his representation to Sharma’s secretary. “It is requested to look into the matter and to send the action taken report directly to the applicant under intimation to this ministry,” the department wrote to Sharma on 24 September. ThePrint has a copy of the correspondence.
In a separate letter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Ram Kumar alleged that Sharma hurled casteist abuses at him. “She told me that I belong to a low caste and was not qualified to talk to her. I will show you the status of your caste.” He also accused her of misusing her official car by forcing him to falsify records in the logbook.
In his representation to the ministry, Ram Kumar had mentioned that he was appointed as a staff car driver on an ad-hoc basis in 1995, while in 2011, his service was regularised, allowing him to work with six NIOS chairpersons, including Sharma, over the last three decades. During this period, there were no complaints over his conduct or driving skills, he added, attaching a commendation certificate from a joint secretary-level officer he also served in the ministry.
After Sharma took charge, Ram Kumar further wrote, he was verbally asked to work in the NIOS mailing division, as another staff driver was attached with her. But, subsequently, he was brought back to Sharma’s office, “till I was abruptly transferred to Bengaluru Regional Centre of NIOSvide order dated 15.07.2024, without citing a plausible reason”.
Ram Kumar, who left behind a wife, three daughters and a son, alleged that his transfer was in “complete violation” of service rules which entitle a person with less than two years left in service to stay posted in their hometown. Moreover, the Bengaluru centre of the NIOS did not even have a sanctioned staff car post, or vehicle, Kumar’s representation to the ministry added.
“My wife is seriously ill. I have two grown-up daughters studying in Delhi. We are residing at asemi-urban cluster in Delhi. Neither will I be able to shift my family from Delhi to Bengaluru nor can I maintain two families with such a meagre salary. There is a psychological issue that has erupted with my family, especially with my wife. She may resort to any kind of coercive action due to this transfer and if such an incident takes place, the authorities of NIOS will be held responsible for the same,” wrote Ram Kumar.
(with inputs from Mayank Kumar)