IAS officer: Harassment allegations are retaliation for opposing 2016 ‘coup plan’

DAYS after being slapped with a police case over allegations of sexually harassing multiple female colleagues, Nagaland IAS officer Reny Wilfred has alleged that he is being “framed” for refusing to back a purported plan to destabilise the state government. 

Only, the supposed plan to topple the government dates back to nearly a decade ago, and the IAS officer in question has been accused of sex crimes previously as well.

A week after Reny Wilfred, joint secretary of the Investment and Development Authority of Nagaland, was booked by the Nagaland police for alleged sexual harassment of several employees, the IAS officer held a press conference in his office chambers at the Nagaland secretariat on April 9 addressing the allegations for the first time.

At the presser, Wilfred accused an unnamed senior police officer of “targeting” him for not helping “in terms of technical support and money” to “topple” the state government in 2016-2017. He further alleged that the concerned authorities had not followed the due process before booking him for sexual harassment. 

However, among all the allegations Wilfred made at the press conference, he did not address why he had not come forward about alleged plans of destabilising the then Naga People’s Front government for more than nine years. Even when he was booked in a POCSO case in 2021.

Originally from Kerala, Wilfred is a Nagaland cadre IAS officer from the 2015 batch. Before joining the Indian Administrative Services, he had a short stint with the Indian Information Services, first in Delhi and then in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In 2016, when he was posted as the assistant deputy commissioner of Kohima district, Wilfred alleges, he was approached by a top-ranking police official for “financial and technical assistance” for purportedly “toppling” the Naga People’s Front’s government. 

The Nagaland police have termed Wilfred’s allegations irrelevant to the sexual harassment case filed against him.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Director General of Police Rupin Sharma said, “The allegations [levelled by Wilfred] are not relevant to the current set of facts.”

The case against Wilfred

The police booked Wilfred for outraging a woman’s modesty and sexual harassment under Sections 74 and 75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Following the FIR, Wilfred was relieved from his official duties at IDAN, an entity set up by the state Department of Finance in 2018.

The FIR on April 2 follows a letter by the Nagaland State Commission for Women to DGP Rupin Sharma on March 17, requesting the police to take steps at “top priority”. In the letter, a copy of which was seen by Newslaundry, the commission said the “offences committed by the perpetrator” were “extremely alarming”. 

“Such a gruesome act by a high-ranking government officer upon its inferior staff is highly uncalled for. The act per se speaks to a volume of distressing act(s) meted out against the victims by the perpetrator,” the letter noted.

The police subsequently launched a preliminary inquiry as per section 173(3) of the BNS. According to an initial probe, headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police K Lucy Yhome, multiple female employees of the IDAN alleged that they frequently faced intimidation from Wilfred at the workplace. 

In a letter attached to the inquiry report submitted by DSP Yhome to the Superintendent of Police, Wilfred was accused of summoning survivors to his office chamber and place of residence at unusual hours – after work and on holidays (weekends) – under the pretense of work-related matters. According to the letter, multiple women had accused Wilfred of initiating physical contact and expressing desires for intimate interactions. 

The victims told the police that when they would rebuff Wifred’s advances, he would allegedly dismiss their work contributions and belittle them. The letter noted that the complainants accused Wilfred of repeated unsettling, leering behaviour, which added to their distress at the workplace. 

The police also found that the lack of defined workplace regulations – especially in regard to recruitment and hiring, organisational obligations, disciplinary procedures and behaviour standards – had created a hostile work environment and promoted exploitative behaviour of those in authority. 

Notably, it was Abu Mehta, chairperson of the IDAN, who first sent a verbal complaint to the Nagaland State Commission for Women on February 27 accusing Wilfred of sexually and mentally harassing several women employees of the department. The NSCW then recorded the statements of the victims and subsequently asked the Nagaland Police to book Reny Wilfred.

When Newslaundry asked Wilfred about the allegations, he said that his statements at the workplace were taken “out of context”. 

A Special Investigation Team has been formed for further probe. 

Wilfred’s counterclaims

Wilfred, who belongs to an OBC-classified Christian community, has claimed that due process was not followed in registering a police case against him. At the April 9 press conference, he said that an internal complaint committee (IC) should have ideally investigated the complaints and submitted their findings to the police. 

But Newslaundry has learnt that a week after the verbal complaint was communicated to the NCSW, an IC was also formed at IDAN to look into the allegations against Wilfred.

Newslaundry reached out to IDAN chairperson Abu Mehta, who is also an advisor to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, on multiple occasions, but he did not respond to our calls or messages. This report will be updated if he responds. 

Not the first time

This is not the first time that Wilfred has come under the scanner for sexual harassment. 

In 2021, while he was posted as the Deputy Commissioner of the Noklak district, a Special Investigation Team had booked him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor sisters from a backward tribe in eastern Nagaland. A chargesheet in the matter was filed in December 2021 and the matter is being heard in a special court in Tuensang district.

Wilfred has termed all the allegations of sexual harassment against him as part of a campaign led by a senior police official to target him for not supporting the alleged plan to de-stabilise the 2016 government.

In 2016, Nagaland was governed by the Naga People’s Front-led alliance, which lost to Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party in the 2018 state elections.

Neiphiu Rio, as Nagaland CM, left NPF in January 2018 when the party broke its alliance with the BJP ahead of the state polls. Rio then joined the newly-formed NDPP and within a month, under his leadership, in February 2018, the new entity entered into an alliance with the BJP. Since then, this new alliance has been in power in the Northeastern state, winning two consecutive elections.

On why he had not come forward about the supposed plans to topple the previous NPF government all this while, Wilfred told Newslaundry that he “was not in the position to say anything”. 

According to Wilfred, the senior police official who had allegedly approached him wanted his “favourite people in power”. Wilfred further claimed the police official had allegedly reached out to him for the former’s abilities to “arrange funds” and his “access to finances”, which the cop allegedly wanted to be routed to a particular set of people. 

Wilfred has, however, repeatedly refused to name the concerned police official “because of the risk of things going against him”. He maintains he has “facts” and “evidence” to substantiate his claims. He said he would only share the concerned evidence with the investigating agencies and not with the police because “he does not trust them to conduct an impartial investigation”.

He has also claimed himself to be a victim of "systemic bias”. 

Two days after the police booked him in the latest case of sexual harassment, Wilfred had written to the Bar Council of India flagging alleged dual employment of advocate Yangthsapila Sangtam, the counsel for NCSW. In his letter, Wilfred said that Sangtam was engaged in legal practice while being employed as a government school teacher. 

At the press conference, he had alleged that apart from being a counsel for NCSW, Sangtam also served as a legal counsel for the Nagaland Police and was representing the minor’s family in the 2021 POCSO case. He accused Sangtam of “cherry picking” his statements to “ensure that things went in a particular manner”.

When contacted by Newslaundry, Sangtam refused to respond to Wilfred’s allegations.

This report was originally published in Newslaundry and can be accessed here.