Inquiry launched against UP IAS officer for alleged communal Islamic speech

A video of an IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh is circulating which purportedly shows him spreading anti-Hindu propaganda. An inquiry has been instituted against the officer.

Mohammed Iftikharuddin is a 1985 officer of the UP cadre. Born in 1962, the officer is originally from Bihar. He is currently serving as chairman of the state’s Road Transport Corporation.

In the video, Iftikharuddin, clad in a white shirt, grey trousers and a skull cap is sitting on a white plastic chair while 11 people sit before him on a white sheet.

The officer who speaks in Urdu, Hindi and English and says at one place: “Change the mankind. There is no mankind. I am the rasul (messenger) of Allah.”

“Keep Allah’s glories intact,” he goes on to say.

“Allah’s kingdom has to be established. How will it happen? All of you who are sitting here want to do so. They should do so. If they don’t, Allah will definitely punish them.”

Another member of the audience recounts a recent experience from Punjab of a man who had embraced Islam. He said that he had asked the man why he had chosen so and the man said that the tipping point was the cremation of his sister. When the sister’s pyre was lit, her clothes were burnt, and she was “naked” according to the man. “He said today people are watching my naked sister, tomorrow they will watch my naked daughter. I felt very ashamed. It then came to me that there was no religion better than Islam and that I should accept it,” the person who seems like a cleric says.

“What kind of things are prompting people to accept Islam and we are just sitting here,” he says.

The IAS officer is seen sitting on the white sheet when the cleric speaks.

“We have been given such a centre in UP from which we can work,” says the cleric.

The video appears to have been shot in the officer’s official residence.

The chairperson of the Akhil Bhartiya Hindi Mahasabha Swami Chakrapani Maharaj has demanded that an inquiry against all such officials who are propagating a "Talibani mindset" be instituted.

"The IAS should be removed at once," he said.

A Special Investigation Team has been formed to investigate whether the officer is indeed responsible for stirring anti-Hindu feelings. It is to be headed by the Director General CB-CID Gopal Lal Meena. ADG of Kanpur zone Bhanu Bhaskar will be a member. The team has to give its report to the government within seven days.

Meanwhile, the police commissioner of Kanpur has tweeted on the official account that the veracity of the video is being checked.

The allegation against the officer was made by Bhupesh Awasthi, who is a national-level office bearer of the Math Mandir Coordination Committee. Awasthi had released the video.