Lucknow: He was shot seven times in 2009 for exposing a multi-crore scam in Uttar Pradesh’s social welfare department. In 2022, he went on to become an IAS officer and made the headlines three years later by doing sit-ups before a group of agitating lawyers.
Meet 43-year-old Rinku Singh Rahi, who has now resigned from the service after alleging that he was sidelined.
He was serving as the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) in Shahjahanpur in 2025, when he went on an inspection of the tehsil premises. He reportedly found four individuals urinating in public and instructed them to perform sit-ups on the spot as a form of punishment.
One of those punished turned out to be a law clerk and lawyers launched an agitation. Rahi went to meet them and was told that the urinals within the tehsil premises were extremely unclean and unusable.
The IAS officer immediately took responsibility for this and apologised. He then performed sit-ups by holding his ears in front of the lawyers, as a form of self-imposed punishment.
The incident was videographed and went viral on social media. He was then removed from his post as SDM. In July 2025, he was attached to the Revenue Council as part of administrative action, effectively sidelining him from active field duties, as reported by News18.
It has been reported that Rahi put in his papers, citing the absence of a proper posting and meaningful work. In his resignation letter, he stated that although he remained attached to the department, he was not given any responsibilities or opportunities to serve the public.
Despite continuing to receive his salary, he had been deprived of active administrative work, Rahi noted. He described his decision as a moral one, and expressed concern over being unable to contribute meaningfully to public service.
Rahi completed his BTech in Metallurgy from NIT, Jamshedpur, in 2002. Despite ranking 17th in GATE that year, he persisted with his aim to join the administrative service.
He cleared the UP Upper Subordinate Services examination in 2004 and got posted as civil services exams and was posted as district social welfare officer at Muzaffarnagar in 2008.
It was there that Rahi exposed the scam involving the siphoning off of welfare funds. He was shot seven times for this, leaving his jaw dislocated. He also lost sight in one eye.
Despite this, he went on to crack the UPSC and joined the Indian Administrative Service.
