Bureaucrat accused of not returning files to successor

A senior bureaucrat is accused of not handing over the charge to her successor even more than a year after she was transferred from the position.

Vidhana Soudha police have registered an FIR against Jyothi, currently a deputy secretary in the Department of Health and Family Welfare, following a complaint by Anwar Pasha, Deputy Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Legal Metrology Department.

Jyothi is accused of not returning the files to her successor. She has been booked under the Karnataka State Public Records Act. A police officer said she would be summoned for questioning.

The allegation dates back to the time when she was posted as deputy secretary, Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Legal Metrology Department, bewteen December 2018 and March 2020. Her next positing was in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) in March 2020.

Pasha told the police that as per the government order, he took charge of his current posting in October last year. But Jyothi didn't hand him over the files or the charge. At the time, she handled more than four important official records, he told the police.

According to Pasha, he and other officials tried to contact her for the records but she didn't cooperate. Shockingly, even the DPAR doesn't have those records and had asked Pasha to take legal steps to get them back. On the advice of his senior officials, Pasha filed the police complaint.