BHOPAL : Panchayats and rural development secretary, Ramesh Thete in his reply to the first notice issued by the government to him, has written to the chief secretary Antony De Sa that he had neither done anything unconstitutional nor violated the civil services code of conduct.
Thete, in his reply given on Tuesday, has also written that if he dies due to action taken against him and the resultant humiliation, his body should be handed over to his wife and daughters who live in Nagpur. Thete said that his body should be kept before the statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar for five minutes before performing his last rites.
Thete claimed that instead of punishing the additional chief secretary Radheshyam Julania, the government was persecuting him. He said by recording his conversation with Julania, he had not done any wrong as the Supreme Court, in one of its rulings, had said that conversations could be recorded to prove anyone’s culpability.
Thete, replying to the charge of leaking his letter to the media, wrote that he did not leak the letter and someone in the CM office or CS office might have done that. He claimed that it was possible that state government leaked the letter in order to get an excuse to harass him. Thete said he talks with media persons as he had the fundamental right to freedom of expression.
Thete has been served another notice by the government for holding a press conference outside the IAS Guest House, to which he is yet to reply.
