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Mysore: In a shocking incident, a female IAS officer was manhandled & attacked by her former office employees after their colleague was found dead.

Rashmi Mahesh is the Director-General of the Administrative Training Institute.

The group of men raised slogans and attacked Rashmi over the suicide of an employee. Mess supervisor Venkatesh’s (53) body was found in the water tank on Wednesday. He had reportedly committed suicide due to financial irregularities at the institute.

The attackers also included relatives of Venkatesh.

A policeman was seen in the video trying to pacify the angry mob but was unsuccessful.

19 persons have been arrested for the attack.

Talking to English daily The Hindu, Rashmi said that it was a pre-meditated assault

“The catering contract had been extended for several years in violation of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act. I ended it after taking over,” she said. The Director-General of ATI said she had already written three letters to the government to order a CBI probe into the irregularities. She said the caterers had submitted a bill of Rs. 8 crore of which Rs. 1 crore was pending since March this year. “After I took over, I questioned the payment of the outstanding amount as the contract was in violation of the KTPP Act,” she said.

It was a pre-meditated assault, says IAS officer

She claims she was targeted for trying to stem the rot in the ATI

“It was a pre-meditated assault,” said Rashmi V., the IAS officer and Director-General of the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Mysore, who was allegedly attacked by former contract employees of the institute.

Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Rashmi, a 1996-batch IAS officer accused the contract catering employees of being responsible for the attack. “They came in a bus, armed with stones and lathis,” she said and added that she had been targeted for trying to stem the rot in the ATI by cancelling the catering contract.

Ms. Rashmi was allegedly slapped, hit with slippers and manhandled on the ATI premises by a group of protesters, who were accusing her of harassing mess supervisor Venkatesh (53) whose body was found in the water tank earlier in the day.

The protesters also waylaid Ms. Rashmi’s official car and raised slogans against her. The police had to rush to the spot and escort her to safety in a police vehicle, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) A.N. Rajanna.

Earlier in the day, the ATI security personnel found a pair of slippers abandoned near the water tank. Suspecting that somebody has fallen inside, the officials summoned the Fire and Emergency Services personnel and drained the water out of the tank only to find Venkatesh’s body. Nazarbad police inspector K.C. Poovaiah described Venkatesh’s death as a suicide.

Venkatesh’s relatives, including his wife, accused Ms. Rashmi of harassing her husband in her fight with the former Director-General of ATI Amita Prasad, also a senior IAS officer.

The assault took place when Ms. Rashmi went to pay her respects. But, Ms. Rashmi sought to delink the suicide of the mess supervisor with the assault on her. She said ATI officials had lodged a complaint with regard to the assault in the jurisdictional police station.

She said the incident was a fallout of her demand for a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities that had been committed in the ATI during the tenure of her predecessor, Ms. Prasad.

“The catering contract had been extended for several years in violation of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act. I ended it after taking over,” she said. The Director-General of ATI said she had already written three letters to the government to order a CBI probe into the irregularities. She said the caterers had submitted a bill of Rs. 8 crore of which Rs. 1 crore was pending since March this year. “After I took over, I questioned the payment of the outstanding amount as the contract was in violation of the KTPP Act,” she said.