Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led UP government transferred 37 IAS officers in a major reshuffle on Friday night. Of the 16 District Magistrates and four divisional commissioners transferred, one of them was Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela, who was in news for stopping journalists from entering the counting centre during the constituency’s recently concluded bypoll.
Rautela has now been made the new divisional commissioner of Devipatan division, while K Vijyendra Pandiyan was made the new Gorakhpur DM.
This isn’t the first time that Rautela has been involved in a controversy. Last year, after 60 children died in Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital, the then DM submitted a report to the government claiming that the oxygen provider to the hospital — Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd — cut off the supply. The firm denied the charges and retorted that they have proof of their innocence.
Rautela, who is said to be close to CM Yogi Adityanath, while posted as DM Aligarh in 2013, made controversial remarks regarding the compensation that were handed out to martyrs families. The DM, while addressing a group of journalists, said that India was a “land of mourners”. He added that “5,000 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan, but their families never ask for compensation”.
Last year, in the month of December, the Allahabad High Court had ordered the suspension of Kanpur rural district magistrate Rakesh Kumar Singh and Rautela over an illegal mining case. Singh and Rautela are accused of promoting illegal mining during their tenure as district magistrates in Rampur despite the orders of the high court.
Rautela also played an important role in facilitating the withdrawal of a criminal case against Yogi Adityanath. On December 20, the state government wrote to Rautela to withdraw a May, 1995, case filed against Adityanath and 12 others at Gorakhpur’s Pipiganj police station. The case charged Adityanath and others with inciting and leading wide-spread violence against Muslims in Gorakhpur and neighbouring areas.
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