Reny Wilfred addresses the media in Kohima on April 9. (Morung File Photo)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 22
An officer of the revered Indian Administrative Service (IAS) has been placed under suspension, in Nagaland, pending investigation into alleged sexual abuse charges. The officer, Reny Wilfred, of the Nagaland cadre— 2015 batch, was helming the role of a Joint Secretary in the state Finance Department.
His suspension order was issued by the Chief Secretary to the Government of Nagaland on May 21 more than two months after sexual misconduct allegations were leveled against him reportedly by female subordinates.
The order from the Chief Secretary cited an ongoing “criminal offence” investigation against the said bureaucrat, placing him under suspension with immediate effect, as conferred by the All India Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969.
During the period of the suspension, it directed that the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms will serve as the “Headquarters” of the officer under inquiry, and will not leave the said headquarters without the permission of the Chief Secretary.
The allegation against Wilfred surfaced in early April after the Nagaland State Women Commission filed a complaint in the Nagaland Police Headquarters in March. The PHQ subsequently instituted a Special Investigation Team.
The Women Commission based its complaint on verbal information it received from the Chairperson of the Investment and Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN), Abu Metha. Wilfred was also Joint Secretary of the IDAN, the state government’s flagship investment promotion and facilitation agency.
With a special police investigation over his head, Wilfred denied the charges against him at a press conference he called in Kohima on April 9. He alleged character assassination bid and political conspiracy behind the allegations.
This was followed by a flurry of public demands from the Naga civil society calling for penal action against the bureaucrat. Meanwhile, Wilfred has since shunned the media radar.
Before the allegation hit the public domain, he was facing trial in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act case, heard by a Special POCSO court in Tuensang. The case dates back to 2021 when Wilfred was posted as the Deputy Commissioner of Noklak district. In this case, he was accused of molesting two allegedly domestic workers at his official residence in Noklak.
That case went to trial in Tuensang. He subsequently sought the transfer of the trial to a different court, out of Tuensang, at the High Court citing threat to his safety. His ‘Transfer Appeal’ was rejected.
