After making corruption charges against state officers in a secret chat group on the app Signal, a young Indian Administrative Service officer has requested police protection in Madhya Pradesh.
The state government has previously issued a notice to Lokesh Kumar Jangid, a 2014-batch IAS official, on claims that he was placed in a secret group of IAS officers in Signal. From the group, his posts were released.
Mr. Jangid wrote to Madhya Pradesh DGP Vivek Johri on Friday, claiming that at 11.50 p.m. on Thursday, he received a call on the messaging app Signal from an unknown individual.
According to the IAS officer, the mysterious caller threatened him for speaking to the media and told him that if he cared about his own and his son’s lives, he should take a six-month vacation.
“The caller asked me to stop talking to media, or else me and my family would be in danger,” says Mr. Jangid, adding he wrote to the senior police officer seeking security.
The Bhopal Police has started investigating the matter.
Mr Jangid has requested a three-year assignment to Maharashtra, his home state, for personal grounds. He stated in the leaked posts that he was being relocated often due to his unwillingness to accept corruption. He claims he has been transferred nine times in four and a half years.
The state government served the IAS official with a notice for suspected “indiscipline” and demanded a response within a week. Vishvas Sarang, a Madhya Pradesh minister, confirmed the notification, saying that transfers and postings are standard administrative procedures.
