Political parties across Jammu & Kashmir’s ideological divide — the ruling National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — have united to demand strict action against senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Kumar Rajeev Ranjan after a viral video showed him verbally abusing a woman provincial services officer during an official virtual meeting.
NC chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said chief minister Omar Abdullah has asked chief secretary Atul Dulloo to ensure accountability and protect the woman officer from retribution. “Accountability must prevail, and no one should be allowed to misuse their position to intimidate or victimise others,” Sadiq said.
Sadiq also seized the opportunity to underline the government’s limited powers under the present Union Territory structure. IAS officers posted in J&K fall directly under the Lieutenant Governor’s jurisdiction, leaving the elected Chief Minister without direct powers to transfer or take disciplinary action against them.
Had J&K been a full state, Sadiq noted, Ranjan would have been immediately transferred and attached to the General Administration Department (GAD) pending a formal inquiry into his conduct. “This is precisely why the fight for the restoration of full statehood is so important, and why those occupying influential positions continue to undermine it,” he said.
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The exchange
The heated argument, which sparked widespread outrage after a video clip surfaced online, took place over the role of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) during a review meeting on ‘Mission YUVA’ chaired by Ranjan, a 2010-batch IAS officer serving as secretary of the Labour and Employment Department.
Ranjan repeatedly interrupted Beenish Wani, assistant director at the Employment and Counselling Centre in Ganderbal, as she briefed the panel on her office’s achievements. When Wani tried to explain her position, Ranjan termed her “bloody shit” and threatened to issue a suspension order on the spot.
The Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS) officers’ association issued a statement backing Wani, stating that this was not an isolated incident. The fraternity alleged that the IAS officer has an established pattern of using “unparliamentary and demeaning language” in an official capacity.
Ranjan has not commented on the incident after the video emerged.
Cross-party condemnation
PDP leader Iltija Mufti also sought action against the IAS officer for his abusive language.
BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur described the officer’s conduct as unacceptable. “The language the IAS officer used against a senior Kashmiri woman officer is not acceptable to any of us. The IAS officer was allegedly involved in a famous gun scam and action should be taken against him,” he said.
Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi shared a video of the incident, calling the IAS officer a bully and praising the woman officer for the way she conducted herself.
“That’s how a senior IAS officer in J&K — Administrative Secretary, Labour & Employment — dealt with a woman KAS officer who wouldn’t be shouted down in front of a room full of officers. He raised his voice. She raised her dignity. He reached for the only weapon a bully in office has: her job. 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. She was composed. She was clear. She didn’t flinch. That is what dignity and self respect looks like. He is what a problem looks like.
This is what abrogation of Art 370 has brought upon us. An assault on dignity at every level. Even the officers in administration behave like conquerors.@OfficeOfLGJandK @DullooAtal — if she is touched for holding her dignity, it will have consequences,” he wrote on X.
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Past controversies
This isn’t the first time Kumar Rajeev Ranjan has made headlines. He was suspended in 2020 after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him in connection with its probe into the large number of arms licences the administration allegedly issued on the basis of forged documents. He was reinstated in 2021. The case is still pending.
The investigation relates to the period when Ranjan was the deputy commissioner of Kupwara district in 2015-16. Since 2019, CBI has been probing irregularities in the issuance of more than 278,000 arms licences in several districts of J&K to ineligible persons between 2012 and 2016 by the district magistrates/deputy commissioners/licensing authorities for bribes.
On February 17, 2025, CBI registered a case against Ranjan and his family members in a disproportionate assets case and carried out searches at seven locations including Ranjan’s office in Jammu and other places in Varanasi, Srinagar and Gurugram.