His sudden exit raised eyebrows, with government sources telling TOI that Khandey had a fall out with the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government.
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The chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Iqbal Khanday resigned on Tuesday because of a dispute with the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government as per sources say. Media speculation had run high on August 21 about Khandey’s differences with the government when he did not attend the state cabinet meeting.
Top sources in the administration revealed to Kashmir Life that early today a senior PDP cabinet rank minister called upon Khanday in his office and held an hour long closed door meeting with him.
Khandey, an accused in the infamous sexual exploitation case which rocked the state in 2006, was on leave on August 21 because of the death of a relative and he had sought time from the government to attend the mourning, which was allegedly not given. However, the government rejected his plea and made a decision to go ahead with the meeting.
Another officer said the government should not allow any junior officer to supersede them.
Khanday, who was considered close to Mufti, is an IAS officer of 1978 batch. Vyas, who was principal secretary to Omar Abdullah, was retained by Mufti as principal secretary showing his acceptance in the political circles.
Khanday, sources said, felt offended at being “sidelined on some critical aspects of decision-making” ever since the PDP-BJP alliance came to power in March. However, he refused to budge, they said.
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Reacting to the development, Omar tweeted, “another sign that things in J&K aren’t going as smoothly as some people would like to have us believe”.
