Indian Forest Service officers are agitated over suicide of one of their senior colleagues in Meghalaya three days ago. The Chief Conservator of Forest, Meghalaya, Mr N Luikham, committed suicide in his official residence by hanging. Now, the central unit of IFS Association has demanded a thorough probe in the incident and action against those who abetted the act.

The Association Secretaty General Dr Suneesh Buxy, in a letter written to Meghalaya Chief Secretary Mr Donland Phillips Wahlang, claimed that Mr Luikham had been falsely accused by a junior colleague last month of sexually harassing her and was under stress and mental trauma because of these allegations.

The sexual harassment allegations were levelled against Mr Luikhan at the best of a powerful mining lobby of the state against which he had come down heavily, Dr Busy said in his letter. Nothing substantive was found in the inquiry conducted into the allegations against him, he claimed.

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SEXUAL HARASSMENT CHARGES

It is learnt that the woman officer – belonging to Meghalaya Forest Service – had claimed in a petition filed in Meghalaya High Court that she had been transferred out to Forest Resource Survey Division on February 6 this year because she had complained to PCCF about the sexual harassment. She claimed this post was not safe for her and she feared for her personally safety. She had also filed an FIR with the police in this regard.

But, she was transferred back as DFO, Khasi Autonomous Hill Division on February 27th, the complaint became infractuous and dismissed by the High Court on Match 1, 2024. The court order however, directed the state forest authorities to expeditiously conduct an inquiry into her allegations by Internal Complaints Committee of the department.

Mr Luikham felt that his reputation was being deliberately tarnished at the behest of the mining mafia. That is why he chose to end his life by hanging on March 12.

IFS Association in its letter to he chief secretary claimed that the incident had hit the morale of upright officers across the country. The letter has demanded a CBI probe into the circumstances surrounding the officer’s suicide. The incident has raised serious questions which can be answered only through a detailed, and impartial inquiry. It has also demanded stringent action for acts of abetment or negligence, so that such incidents do not recur in future.