A CCTV footage of an IAS officer repeatedly slapping a student in Madhya Pradesh has surfaced online and raised concerns. The incident took place on April 1 during the BSc 2nd year Mathematics exam at Deendayal Dangraulia Mahavidyalaya, according to an NDTV report. 

What does the CCTV footage show?

The now-viral video opens to show the IAS officer dragging a student, in a red-coloured shirt, by the collar before slapping him multiple times. As the video goes on, he seems to ask something from the student sitting in front of him and then starts slapping him again. He then drags the student out of the exam hall and into another room, which seems to be a staff room.

There, he places the paper on the table and tells another man that it was found with him. He turns to Rathore and asks him, “Where is your paper? Were you writing in the air?” before repeatedly slapping him again.

ALSO READ

The IAS officer in the video is identified as Sanjeev Srivastava, and the student is Rohit Rathore. 

‘Because he is an IAS officer…’

The student, who later reported having suffered ear injuries from the repeated slaps, said he felt unable to respond or resist because of the officer’s position.

“Because he is an IAS officer, I couldn’t say anything,” NDTV reported Rathore as saying. 

‘Organised cheating racket’

In response to the backlash over his actions, IAS officer Sanjeev Srivastava claimed that he had gone to the exam hall to investigate an organised cheating scam.

“I went there to investigate an organised cheating racket. I have also written to the university recommending that the college not be used as an examination centre in the future,” Srivastava explained to the outlet, before accusing some students of bringing in the solved question papers and using them during the exam. 

ALSO READ

‘Such an officer should continue or not?’

This, however, is not the first time that the IAS officer’s behaviour has been questioned. Earlier, while hearing a case related to the PWD, the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court said, “The Chief Secretary should decide whether such an officer should continue in the field or not.”

Tehsildar Mala Sharma has also raised allegations of mental harassment against IAS officer Sanjeev Srivastava and SDM Parag Jain. The now-viral letter addressed to the Chief Minister, she wrote: “If anything happens to me due to this torture, the responsibility will lie with Collector Sanjeev Srivastava and Gohad SDM Parag Jain.”

The harassment, as per Sharma, began when she reportedly reclaimed valuable land worth crores from the clutches of land grabbers and declared it government property. The Tehsildar accused Jain of colluding with his relative, one Prabodh Jain, to get private land recorded in the khasra (land record). When Mala Sharma opposed this, she began facing mental harassment.