Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (SR)

Bengaluru, May 2: Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer K Mathai, on April 29, lodged a complaint against the chief secretary and nine other IAS officers, with the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) for continuous human rights violations against him in contravention of Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution.

After delaying the complaint for two months KSHRC finally registered the complaint (1564) against the Chief Secretary and other IAS officers for their alleged role in violating human rights.

K Mathai

According to the complaint sent to KSHRC, Mathai alleged that he was transferred 27 times in 10 years by the government for exposing a land scam in Mandya Urban Development Authority (MUDA). He said in the complaint registered to the KSHRC “I request your good offices to register a complaint against Principal Secretary, DPAR Services, government of Karnataka and to grant justice and proper compensation for the mental agony I was made to undergo, I explained and convinced the KSHRC officials that government employees too have rights and violation of their rights have to be treated as violation of human rights.’’

In the aforesaid complaint he has mentioned names of Gautam Bagadi, Anil Kumar, Shivakumar, E V Ramana Reddy, Vijaya Bhaskar (Chief Secretary), Hiremath, Srinivas, Anjum Parvez, M Lakshminarayana and G Kalpana as respondents.

“I have suffered mental agony because of my fight against corruption. I consider a letter written by the then Minister for Housing Dr M H Ambareesh (dated 24-5-2014) as the source for my frequent transfers and problems. The government transferred me 27 times in 10 years. Ambareesh insisted that the then Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake transfer me immediately since there were complaints alleging that I might indulge in corruption in the future. This is pure revenge. I’m being targeted for preparing a report on the land scam in Mandya Urban Development Authority (MUDA),’’ he said in the complaint.

Earlier, on April 23, he requested for an appointment with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, but that was not materialised. His earlier attempts to meet the previous Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also failed due to negative response.

“I tried to meet Siddaramaiah twice during his tenure but the latter did not give me an opportunity to meet him. When Dy SP Ganapathi committed suicide, Siddaramaiah had issued a statement that government officers should not commit suicide. He said the government officers should come to him if they have any problems, but he refused to meet me,’’ said Mathai.

Regarding the case, some Kannada social activists have come up in protest and they intended the higher authorities to take proper action on the case. Social activist Sai Dutta said, “We have lost D K Ravi, an IAS officer and M K Ganapthy, a DySP due to harassment by their senior officers and politicians. I demand that authorities take measures to protect honest officers before they take the extreme step.’’