Rinku Singh Rahi, a 2022-batch IAS officer serving in Uttar Pradesh, submitted his resignation on Tuesday in a move he described as a moral choice. Specifically, Rahi alleged that the system punishes honest officers by paying them a salary while denying them any posting or meaningful work for extended periods. Furthermore, he stated that accepting a salary without performing any public service constitutes a form of corruption in itself. Consequently, he chose resignation over continued inaction, framing the decision as a matter of personal integrity and professional conscience.
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What the Sit-Ups Incident Was Actually About
Rahi received his posting as Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Puwayan in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on July 28, 2025. However, the state government removed him from the post within just 36 hours of assuming charge. Specifically, a video went viral on social media showing Rahi holding his ears and performing sit-ups during a lawyers’ protest at the tehsil premises. The incident originated when Rahi caught a clerk urinating against a wall during an official inspection and asked him to do sit-ups as a corrective measure.
How the Lawyers’ Protest Unfolded
The lawyers’ reaction to Rahi’s action against the clerk triggered an immediate protest at the tehsil premises. Specifically, a group of advocates approached Rahi and drew his attention to the genuinely poor condition of the toilets on the premises. Furthermore, the lawyers explained that both advocates and clerks regularly had no choice but to urinate in the open due to a complete lack of proper sanitation facilities. Consequently, Rahi acknowledged their concerns and accepted moral responsibility as the senior-most officer of the tehsil for the poor state of sanitation. Additionally, he held his ears and performed five sit-ups publicly in front of the lawyers, a video of which went massively viral across social media platforms.
The state government treated the viral video as a serious matter requiring immediate administrative action. Specifically, it directed the district magistrate to submit a detailed report on the incident. Furthermore, upon receiving the report, the government transferred Rahi out of his SDM role and attached him to the UP Revenue Board in Lucknow. Consequently, Rahi received a salary every month but found himself without any meaningful posting, public work or administrative responsibility for an extended period of time. Together, this experience of being paid to sit idle ultimately drove his decision to resign.
A Career Defined by Courage and Sacrifice
Rahi’s background makes his resignation particularly significant. Specifically, he worked as a PCS officer after clearing the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission examination in 2004. Furthermore, while serving as a district social welfare officer in 2008, he actively exposed corruption in government scholarship and pension schemes. Additionally, in March 2009, unidentified attackers shot him seven times, including two bullets to his face, in what appeared to be a targeted attack linked to his anti-corruption work. Consequently, the attack left him permanently disfigured, he lost sight in one eye and suffered a dislocated jaw, spending a month in hospital recovering from his injuries.
Despite the physical and personal trauma of the 2009 attack, Rahi continued pursuing his ambitions in public service. Specifically, he cleared the UPSC civil services examination in 2021 under the disability quota, joining the IAS in Uttar Pradesh in 2022. Furthermore, he hails from the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, and his journey from a shooting survivor to a decorated civil servant represents one of the most remarkable stories of personal resilience in recent administrative history. Therefore, his resignation, framed explicitly as a moral protest against a system that sidelines honest officers, carries a weight that goes far beyond a single viral video or a single disciplinary action.
