Rinku Singh Rahi, an IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh, resigned from his job on Tuesday. According to sources, he said in his resignation letter that a system is working outside the constitutional framework. He also said that although he was receiving a salary, he was not given any opportunity to do public service.
He described his resignation as a moral decision. The letter was sent to the Chairman of the Revenue Board. About eight months ago, he was transferred from Shahjahanpur to the Revenue Board. Since then, he had not been given any field posting.
Earlier, Rinku Singh was working as the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Puwayan Tehsil. During his posting, he made a clerk do uthak-baithak (squats) for defecating in the open. When lawyers protested, he admitted his mistake and did the squats himself. A video of the incident went viral, and he was later transferred.
Rinku Singh Rahi is 44 years old and belongs to the 2021 IAS batch. He still had around 16 years of service left.
He has also survived a serious attack in the past. On March 26, 2009, during the BSP government, he was shot multiple times. He suffered seven bullet injuries, including two on his face, which caused severe damage. He also lost hearing in one ear and vision in one eye.
Eight months ago, he was working as Joint Magistrate in Mathura. After that, he became SDM of Puwayan on July 24, 2025.
During his posting, he once saw a clerk urinating inside the office premises. He warned the clerk to use the toilet. The clerk replied that the toilets were dirty. This made the SDM angry, and he asked the clerk to do squats as punishment.
At that time, lawyers were already protesting in the tehsil. When they heard about the incident, they became angry and called the SDM. The lawyers said the punishment was not right and asked if he would do the same. Rinku Singh replied that there was no shame in it and then performed five squats himself.
Rinku Singh Rahi was born on May 20, 1982, in a Dalit family in Hathras. Due to poor financial conditions, he studied in a government school. After scoring good marks in Class 12, he received a scholarship. With this, he completed his B.Tech from Tata Institute in Jamshedpur.
He cleared the PCS exam in 2004 and later appeared for the UPSC exam under the disability quota. In 2021, he secured 683rd rank and became an IAS officer.
His first posting as a PCS officer was in 2008 as District Social Welfare Officer in Muzaffarnagar. There, he exposed a major scam in scholarship and pension schemes. He said that around ₹100 crore was misused and involved a criminal network along with political links.
During that time, the BSP government was in power. On March 26, 2009, while playing badminton, he was attacked by two people who fired multiple shots at him.
He was taken to a hospital in Meerut and treated at Subharti Medical College for about a month. After recovery, he returned to work.
Later, he tried to get information under the RTI Act related to the scam, but did not receive it even after a year. In protest, on March 26, 2012, he started a hunger strike in Lucknow. The police removed him from the protest site and admitted him to a mental hospital.
