The Jharkhand Police on Wednesday arrested IAS officer Syed Riyaz Ahmed for allegedly assaulting an IIT student in the Khunti district of Jharkhand. The Police have booked a sub-Divisional Magistrate Ahmed under sections 354A and 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

According to the reports, the accused was taken into custody on Monday night after a case was lodged at the women’s police station. The IIT student who registered the complaint stated that she was working as an intern at Khunti and was sexually harassed by IAS officer Syed Riyaz Ahmed, Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) there.

Narrating the incident, the victim stated that she was part of a group of eight IIT students who the Khunti district administration invited for a summer internship. The team reached Khunti on June 14. According to the victim, the incident is said to have happened on July 1 when the students were invited by the accused to his home. “On 1 July, all the students were invited by SDO Riyaz Ahmed to his residence. He ordered some liquor and started forcing all of us to drink. He was continuously consuming alcohol. During all this time, he kept staring at me with wrong intentions”, the girl mentioned in the FIR.

“After the party was over, the next morning, i.e., on 2 July, he (Ahmed) took all the interns for a tour of his residence. Once he found me alone, he started kissing me while saying he had condoms. Due to all this, I became very nervous and somehow managed to run away. Even after I managed to flee, he kept calling my friends and telling them to send me to him,” she was quoted. Reportedly, the statement given by the victim was also recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC.

IAS Syed Riyaz Ahmed is a native of Nashik, Maharashtra, and has a wife who is also a civil servant. In one of the seminars posted on YouTube, Ahmed says that both his parents are not so educated and that they wanted something good to happen to him. The accused cracked UPSC in the fifth attempt in 2018 and attained rank 261.

The Police arrested him on charges of sexual assault. They booked the accused under sections 354A (sexual harassment), (i) (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures), and (ii) (a demand or request for sexual favors), as well as 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.