Senior JK Bureaucrat Booked for Domestic Violence, Now Linked to Suicide Attempt by Woman Colleague

SRINAGAR: A senior IAS officer, who has been booked in a domestic violence case against his wife, has landed in yet another controversy with the ruling as well as the Opposition lawmakers in Jammu and Kashmir seeking his ouster from the school education department.

The IAS officer, who is presently posted in School Education department of Jammu and Kashmir government, has been linked to an alleged suicide attempt by Yasha Mudgal, the deputy commissioner of Baramulla, who was packed off to New Delhi last week after the sensational disclosure rocked the state assembly.

According to reports, the IAS officer left the official residence of Ms Mudgal minutes ahead of her reported attempt to end her life on June 17 by slashing her wrists. The issue was raised by the PDP legislator from Chadoora, Javid Mustafa Mir, in the state legislature who demanded that the police must file FIR against the two.

“The IAS officer is in-charge of the education department and it would be appropriate to free the sensitive department from people who are involved in scandalous matters,” Javid said, "I want to know why police has not filed FIR in the case."

A senior police officer told The Citizen that although the matter has come into their notice through media, the lack of a complaint against any one of the two persons, has kept them away from filing an FIR. "Since there is no complaint against anyone, we have not filed any case", the officer said.

Following Javid's statement on the floor of the House, the deputy speaker, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, Monday directed the J&K government to remove the IAS officer from his posting. "The IAS officer should not be put at the helm of a department with a large women workforce," the deputy speaker directed the government, without naming the officer.

In 2007, the J&K cadre IAS officer was accused by his wife of throwing her out of their house as her "parents were unable to meet her in-laws' recurrent dowry demands". He was then posed as director in the Prime Minister's Office.

Earlier, the state government Sunday transferred deputy commissioner of North Kashmir's Baramulla district, Yasha Mudgal to New Delhi as additional resident commissioner after the issue of her attempted suicide was raised in the Legislative Assembly.

"In the interest of administration, the officer is transferred and posted as additional resident commissioner and ex-officio secretary, resident commissioner, New Delhi," an order issued by the government said. According to sources, the decision to transfer Ms Mudgal was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Last week, according to reports, Ms Mudgal was found in a bloodied state with slashes wrists minutes after the IAS officer left the residence. She was rushed to a hospital where her life was saved by timely intervention of doctors