IAS officer who slapped youth in viral video transferred; Chhattisgarh CM condemns act [details]

Collector Ranbir Sharma of Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district has now been removed from his post following an uproar after he slapped a youth and broke his phone for allegedly violating the COVID-19 curfew. After the video went viral on social media, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has instructed to remove him with immediate effect. On the other hand, IAS Association has also condemned Ranbir Sharma's act.

"Through social media, the case of misbehavior of a young man by Surajpur Collector Ranbir Sharma has come to my notice. It is very sad and condemnable. In Chhattisgarh, no such act will be tolerated at all. Instructions have been given to remove Collector Ranbir Sharma with immediate effect," wrote Bhupesh Baghel on Twitter.

The collector apprehended 23-year-old Aman Mittal, who was out getting medication for his grandmother and a blood test for his brother. IAS Sharma is shown slapping a youngster and accusing him of recording the entire episode. He then snatches the boy's phone, throws it on the ground, and orders police officers to attack him. 

IAS Sharma then ordered police to file an FIR against the teen, while Mittal defended himself, claiming that he was out for a cause and that he wasn't breaching any rules. However, police acknowledged that an FIR had been filed against the child for exceeding the speed limit on his motorcycle under Section 279 of the Indian penal code.

Ranbir Sharma: officer with a tainted past

Sharma a 2012 batch IAS officer, has a tainted past as he was caught taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 in 2015 as SDM in Kanker district was then shifted as Under Secretary in the secretariat. He was caught by anti-corruption bureau officials on the complaint by a patwari who accused him of continuously demanding bribes.

In 2014, Sharma was in controversy for ordering to shoot a sloth bear that had allegedly turned into a man-eater and had attacked locals in the Marwahi region of the Bilaspur division. Wildlife activists and the forest department both denounced Sharma's killing of the sloth bear, claiming that as an SDM, he had broken the Wildlife Conservation Act 1972.