Senior Haryana IAS officer Pradeep Kasni, who red-flagged appointment of new information commissioners by the Hooda government, today accused the state Chief Secretary of threatening him.
Kasni, who is Secretary, Administrative Reforms, alleged that he got objectionable SMSes on Sunday night from Chief Secretary SC Choudhary over his stand on the appointment of new commissioners.
Admitting that he had sent the messages, Choudhary, however, sought to play it down, claiming these were "jokes" between "friends" and expressed regret to the officer if they had hurt his sentiments.
"The SMSs are objectionable, written in bad language and in bad taste... All these messages are in bad language and not ones which carry encouraging tone," Kasni told reporters here.
One message by Choudhary read, "Good night. Please enjoy your new status of being a celebrity... But agar apni maa ka doodh piya h to mere saare msg press ko dikha dena (If you are a man, I dare you to show my messages to the press)."
Choudhry, who retires two days later, told PTI: "I am pained to hear this kind of reaction from him. We are like brothers and know each other well as we belong to the same district. All the messages sent by me were intended to be jokes, which friends usually exchange among themselves.
"However, I have offered my regret to him today, saying there was no intention to cause any hurt."
Choudhry has been named as Chairman of the Right to Service Commission.
When contacted, Kasni said for him text messages were not the main issue. "We have not exchanged any message as friends in the past."
"The messages were in filthy language. I am shocked. I am not going to file any police complaint against the Chief Secretary. He is my boss and I have always had high regards for him," Kasni said.
A row had erupted over Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda administering the oath of office to new information commissioners with the Opposition describing the move as "unconstitutional".
Kasni had refused to go along with a controversial move by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
