Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Oct 16
Political leaders across party lines in Kashmir demanded action against a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer accused of verbally abusing a woman colleague during an official meeting, while an association representing junior civil servants staged a one-day strike in protest.
A video circulating on social media purportedly shows Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, Administrative Secretary in the Labour and Employment Department, repeatedly interrupting Beenish Wani, a Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officer, abusing her and threatening to suspend her during a virtual review meeting on October 14.
Wani, a 2015-batch officer serving as Assistant Director at the Employment and Counselling Centre in Ganderbal, was briefing officials on employment targets during a review of Mission YUVA, a government initiative focused on youth employment and entrepreneurship.
The exchange reportedly began when Ranjan questioned why the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) was assisting with work assigned to Wani’s office.
As she attempted to explain the arrangement, he repeatedly 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.”
Wani replied that he could not address her in those terms.
The senior officer then directed officials to prepare a suspension order and record Wani’s remarks during the exchange.
The footage has prompted criticism from the ruling National Conference (NC), opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as calls from civil servants for an independent inquiry.
The authenticity and completeness of the circulating clips have been disputed by the Labour and Employment Department, which said they did not present the full context of the proceedings.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he had raised the matter with Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and directed him to ensure that Wani faced no 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,” CM Omar said in a post on microblogging site ‘X’. “I have taken this up in the strongest possible terms with the Chief Secretary.”
CM Omar said that, as J&K is a Union Territory, control over IAS officers rested with Lok Bhavan, the office of the Lieutenant Governor, but that he had instructed the Chief Secretary to ensure the woman officer faced no “retributive action”.
National Conference (NC) spokesperson and legislator Tanvir Sadiq said the CM had taken serious note of the matter and stressed the need for accountability.
“Accountability must prevail, and no one should be allowed to misuse their position to intimidate or victimise others,” Sadiq said.
He said that, had J&K retained full statehood, Ranjan would have been attached to the General Administration Department (GAD) pending a formal inquiry.
“This is precisely why the fight for the restoration of full statehood is so important,” Sadiq said.
PDP President and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti called for strict action against Ranjan and urged CM Omar to take up the matter with New Delhi.
“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, criticising the language used against Wani.
“How dare you use such derogatory, demeaning language? Take your god complex and dirty slurs elsewhere. We won’t tolerate this in Kashmir,” she said in a post on ‘X’.
Iltija Mufti alleged that Kashmiri administrative officers had been sidelined since 2019 and called on LG Manoj Sinha and the administration to apply the same standards of accountability to senior officials as to other government employees.
National Conference (NC) parliamentarian Aga Syed Ruhullah said Ranjan had used his authority to intimidate a colleague who was seeking an opportunity to explain herself.
“He raised his voice. She raised her dignity,” Ruhullah said in a post 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 political changes following the 2019 revocation of J&K’s special status, saying it reflected what he described as an assault on dignity within the administration.
BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur also criticised the IAS officer’s conduct.
“The language the IAS officer used against a Kashmiri woman officer is not acceptable to any of us,” Thakur said, calling for action against Ranjan.
The All Jammu and Kashmir Junior Scale KAS Association announced a one-day pen-down strike on Friday to protest what it described as the humiliation of a woman officer during an official meeting.
In a communication to members, the association said the protest was aimed at defending “the dignity, self-respect, and institutional honour of the fraternity”.
It urged officers to stand together in solidarity, arguing that an attack on one officer’s dignity concerned the entire service.
The wider JKAS fraternity condemned the alleged verbal abuse, personal insults, and public humiliation of Wani, saying that performance monitoring and administrative accountability could not justify intimidation or abusive language.
The association also challenged the department’s reported suggestion that the circulating footage was artificially generated or fabricated, saying Wani and other meeting participants could attest to the incident.
It called on the LG, Chief Secretary, and General Administration Department to order an impartial inquiry into both the confrontation and the subsequent departmental clarification, ensure that Wani faced no retaliation and establish safeguards against workplace intimidation.
The fraternity also demanded a public apology from Ranjan and appropriate corrective action.
Another government officer, Mantasha Binti Rashid, a Joint Director in the Rural Development Department, expressed solidarity with Wani.
“We work, but not at the cost of respect,” Mantasha said in a social media post, arguing that professional accountability should not come at the expense of an employee’s dignity.
The Jammu and Kashmir Employees Joint Action Committee also condemned the reported behaviour and called for an impartial inquiry.
Meanwhile, the Labour and Employment Department said the video clips circulating online were selectively edited and did not provide the complete context of the October 14 review meeting.
The department said the meeting had examined performance across all 20 districts of J&K and that the full recording was available with the National Informatics Centre.
It said the matter would be dealt with in accordance with applicable rules and regulations, while urging the public and media not to rely on unverified or selectively edited material.
The JKAS fraternity rejected the reported attempt to dismiss the footage as fabricated and called for an independent examination of the complete recording.
Ranjan, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has also faced investigations into alleged irregularities in the issuance of arms licences in J&K.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him in 2020 in connection with its investigation into the arms-licence case.
He was reinstated in 2021.
The Centre granted sanction to prosecute him in November 2024 over alleged irregularities in the issuance of licences, while the CBI registered a separate disproportionate-assets case against him and family members in February 2025.
