'Book IAS officer for abetting suicide'

Employees of Mantralaya on Thursday demanded that senior IAS officer Bhagwan Sahai, who has been blamed for the suicide of his junior officer's 22-year-old son, be placed under suspension and booked for abetting suicide.

Bhagwan Sahai

Sahai, the additional chief secretary (agriculture), is accused of denying joint-secretary Rajendra Ghadge permission to leave office early on August 11 when his son and wife asked him to come home immediately. The depressed boy was threatening to end his life and wanted to desperately talk to his father, but Sahai allegedly turned down Ghadge's request. "It's your personal problem, you solve it," the IAS officer is reported to have said. When Ghadge finally left office on his usual time, he was informed that his son had committed suicide by throwing himself on the railway tracks in Navi Mumbai.

Agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar has now started a departmental inquiry into the matter and asked the chief minister and chief secretary to expand its scope.

"I had been trying to reach out to Ghadge for the past four days. I called again last night and what he told me was shocking. I agree that there should be discipline in departments, but there comes a situation when HoDs need to be humane. Sahai has failed in doing this," Fundkar told mid-day.

On Thursday, the Mantralaya employees protested against Sahai, alongside shooting off a memorandum to the CM citing habitual ill-treatment of juniors. "I don't want to say much, but I get scared whenever Sahai calls me to his office," said a senior woman officer. She added that Sahai was whimsical and a "sadist" who took "pleasure in troubling his juniors".

mid-day had first asked Sahai about the allegations in a text message on August 12, but he didn't respond. Attempts on Thursday failed yet again.

Meanwhile, CM Devendra Fadnavis has said that action will be taken after conducting a probe in the matter.