Amid tussle with the AAP government, Secretary (Services) Ashish More has written to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and the Union Home Ministry, expressing serious threat to his life and sought adequate security cover. In his incident report, More urged his superior authorities to take cognizance of the matter. The IAS officer said that he was detained by the Delhi Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj in his room for over an hour.
Responding to the allegations, Bharadwaj said More’s conduct was “on record”.”If he said it was physical assault or I showed a gun, what could I have done. The conduct of the officer is on record. He said he will follow the transfer order and then he absconded and went incommunicado,” Bharadwaj said when asked about More’s charges against him. He said the Delhi government is going to take action against several officers and everything will be soon cleared.
“The minister acted in a rude and verbally violent and even in a physically threatening manner by getting up from his chair and coming over to my seat to force me to sign the statement. There was every possibility of a physical assault on me by him at that point of time. It reveals that the Minister has a personal vengeance against me which he himself clearly said to me,” reads the incident report.
He further stated that it has become difficult to attend meetings.
The report said that the Minister had told him that he has a personal enmity against him and will act in vengeance even though the officer submitted to him that the matter is nothing personal from his side.
“On May 16, at 1.15 pm, I was informed by my personal staff that I am being called by Saurabh Bhardwaj, Minister (Services) to his chamber on seventh Floor of the Delhi Secretariat. I immediately went to his chamber. Upon meeting the Minister, he said that he had asked for all files pertaining to earlier years decision, but files relating to the period subsequent to April 2022 had not reached him so far. Apart from that he was asking for a file pertaining to the Notification of Civil Services Board (CSB) which was issued in the year 2014. I informed him that I have already instructed the concerned officers of Services Department to provide all the files to the Office of the Minister”, reads the incident report.
“After a while, he directed me to sit there itself and called the-Special Secretary (Services-II), Kinny Singh, IAS , to his chamber. Thereafter, when Kinny Singh came, he asked the same questions to her which were asked to me particularly about the file related to the Notification related to 2014. She told that this file pertains to Services-I Branch, which is looked after by the Special Secretary (Services-I) YVVJ. Rajasekhar, IAS . Then, he asked why all the files are with Rajasekhar and why copy of the Notification is not kept anywhere else in any other file”, he alleged.
“I requested the minister that I may be allowed to go, so that I can resume preparing the record of proceedings of the CSB meeting, which was held today at 10.30 am. He retorted by saying that “kya proceedings banaa rahe ho...kagaz hi kale karne hal turnko...you have wasted all the time since 11.05.2023 and you have absconded from your duty and deliberately you are not following the directions of the elected government,” he further alleged.
The incident report further states, “after sometime, Amitabh Joshi, Deputy Secretary (Services-I) brought some files and kept them on the Minister’s table. The Minister again asked about the file with Notification of constitution of CSB which was notified/issued. Arnitabh Joshi told that this file is with Rajasekhar, Special Secretary (Services-I). Then, the Minister handed over a white paper to Arnitabh JoshI and asked him to write what he has dictated verbally”.
“Thereafter, he ordered Kinny Singh, also to sign the same statement and put on the date also. Singh was reluctant to sign the statement, but the Minister directed her in an intimidatory way to sign the statement After taking signatures of both the Deputy Secretary (Services-I) and Special Secretary (Services-II), the Minister got up from his chair and brought the paper in-front of me and kept it on the table and asked me to sign the same by coming face to face bending over me”, according to the incident report.
When he refused, the minister became “extremely furious and started shouting over” him, saying that ‘sign kar, aise kaise sign nahi karega.. tere ko karna hi padega. lsske bead tera career khatam. Teri toh zindagi barbaad karke rakhunga. issi Diill..Chirag Dilli ka rehne wala hu”.
