Srinagar, Oct 16: The government on Friday ordered a 15-day inquiry into allegations of misconduct against a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer accused of verbally abusing and threatening to suspend a junior female colleague during an official virtual meeting.
The order followed mounting outrage across the political spectrum and a one-day “pen-down” strike by junior civil servants who halted work to protest what they described as the public humiliation of an officer.
According to Government Order No. 1654-JK(GAD) of 2026, issued Friday by the General Administration Department, Commissioner Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mandeep Kaur was appointed as the inquiry officer to lead a comprehensive probe into the matter. Amit Vermani, an additional secretary in the department, was named presenting officer.
Kaur was directed to submit her findings within 15 days.
The inquiry centres on a confrontation between Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, an administrative secretary in the Labour and Employment Department, and Beenish Wani, an assistant director of employment in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, following widespread media coverage.
A video circulating on social media showed Ranjan repeatedly interrupting Wani, using abusive language and threatening to suspend her during an Oct. 14 virtual review of Mission YUVA, a government initiative focused on youth employment and entrepreneurship.
Wani, an officer from the 2015 batch of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) posted at the Employment and Counselling Centre in Ganderbal, was briefing officials on departmental targets when the exchange began. Ranjan questioned why the National Rural Livelihoods Mission was assisting her office with assigned duties.
When Wani attempted to clarify the operational setup, Ranjan told her to remain silent.
“You are screaming at me. You are not letting me explain,” Wani said in the footage.
Ranjan responded: “You are bloody shit. I can always talk to you like this.”
When Wani objected and said he could not address her in that manner, Ranjan directed aides to draft a suspension order against her and officially record her remarks.
The viral footage drew sharp rebukes from across the political spectrum, including the ruling National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alongside calls from civil servants for an independent investigation.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he raised the matter with Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and instructed him to shield Wani from workplace retaliation.
“I have seen the video of the online government meeting that is circulating on social media. Prima facie the conduct of the senior officer was not in keeping with the standards expected of a senior IAS officer and the subsequent threats issued to a junior JKAS officer only make matters worse,” Abdullah said in a post on X. “I have taken this up in the strongest possible terms with the Chief Secretary.”
Abdullah noted that because Jammu and Kashmir is a Union Territory, administrative disciplinary control over IAS officers rests with the office of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan, rather than the elected chief minister. He said he nonetheless instructed the chief secretary to ensure the woman officer faced no “retributive action.”
National Conference (NC) spokesperson and legislator Tanvir Sadiq echoed the chief minister’s stance, demanding administrative accountability.
“Accountability must prevail, and no one should be allowed to misuse their position to intimidate or victimise others,” Sadiq said.
Sadiq said that had Jammu and Kashmir retained its full statehood, Ranjan would have been immediately attached to the General Administration Department pending the formal probe. “This is precisely why the fight for the restoration of full statehood is so important,” he said.
PDP President and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti urged CM Omar to intervene directly with the federal government in New Delhi to seek disciplinary action.
“Such erratic and disdainful conduct cannot be tolerated,” Mufti said. “The CM must immediately take up the matter with the Government of India and demand strict action against the officer who is already facing allegations of issuing illegal gun licences.”
PDP leader Iltija Mufti also demanded Ranjan’s immediate suspension, condemning his words on X: “How dare you use such derogatory, demeaning language? Take your god complex and dirty slurs elsewhere. We won’t tolerate this in Kashmir.”
She alleged that Kashmiri administrative officers had been systematically sidelined since the region’s special constitutional status was revoked in 2019, calling on Sinha’s administration to enforce the same standards of conduct on senior federal bureaucrats as it does on local employees.
Aga Syed Ruhullah, an estranged NC leader and Member of Parliament, said Ranjan abused his position of authority.
“He raised his voice. She raised her dignity,” Ruhullah wrote on X. “This is a grown man with a Secretary’s chair threatening a woman’s career because she asked to be allowed to finish a sentence.”
Ruhullah also linked the incident to the administrative climate following the 2019 political changes, characterising it as an assault on institutional dignity.
BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur joined the calls for punitive measures.
“The language the IAS officer used against a Kashmiri woman officer is not acceptable to any of us,” Thakur said.
In response to the meeting, the All Jammu and Kashmir Junior Scale KAS Association observed a one-day pen-down strike on Friday, calling the incident an attack on the fraternity’s collective self-respect.
In a notice to members, the association said the protest sought to defend “the dignity, self-respect, and institutional honour of the fraternity,” emphasizing that intimidation against one member affected the entire service. The broader JKAS fraternity issued statements condemning the alleged verbal abuse, personal insults and public humiliation, arguing that performance reviews and accountability mechanisms do not justify workplace intimidation.
The association also dismissed informal departmental suggestions that the video was artificially generated, noting that Wani and multiple officials present during the video conference could verify the exchange. The officers called on the lieutenant governor, chief secretary and General Administration Department to conduct an impartial investigation into both the incident and the departmental response, provide safeguards against workplace harassment, secure a public apology from Ranjan, and ensure Wani faces no career reprisal.
Mantasha Binti Rashid, Joint Director in the Rural Development Department, publicly backed Wani on social media, writing: “We work, but not at the cost of respect.”
The Jammu and Kashmir Employees Joint Action Committee also condemned Ranjan’s reported conduct and demanded a transparent probe.
The Labour and Employment Department defended the administrative context of the session, issuing a statement that the circulating video excerpts were selectively edited and lacked proper context. The department stated the virtual review assessed departmental performance across all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the full, unedited session was preserved with the National Informatics Centre.
The department said the matter would be addressed in accordance with government regulations and urged both media outlets and the public not to rely on fragmented footage. The JKAS association rejected that explanation and reiterated its demand for an independent review of the complete recording.
Ranjan, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has previously been the subject of federal inquiries involving alleged administrative irregularities in the granting of arms licenses in Jammu and Kashmir.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Ranjan in 2020 as part of its investigation into the licensing scheme.
He was later reinstated to service in 2021.
In November 2024, the central government approved sanction for Ranjan’s formal prosecution regarding the gun-licensing irregularities.
The CBI subsequently registered a separate disproportionate-assets case against him and members of his family in February 2025.
