Meerut: A video in which Saharanpur district magistrate PK Pandey is seen threatening panchayat officials went viral on social media on Thursday. “Hum tumhara gala kaat denge (I will cut your throat),” the DM is heard saying while reprimanding one particular official. According to sources, when Pandey arrived unannounced at the panchayat office in Behat on Wednesday, he found some discrepancies in panchayat records. “You do not visit your area despite having the right to carry out inspections. You better mend your ways or I will cut your throat,” the DM reportedly said to an official.Asked about his comment, Pandey told TOI that his statement was twisted. “My statement was twisted and misunderstood. I did not mean what is being shown in the video. These officials were not maintaining records of sanitation workers. I told them that if they do not maintain a proper record of workers and if there is an accident and a worker loses his life, they will be held responsible. I told them that if a woman comes to us claiming to be the wife of the deceased worker seeking compensation, their throat will be on the line,” he said.While there have been several incidents in the past where politicians have used abusive language against bureaucrats or have threatened them, Wednesday’s episode was a rare case of a bureaucrat threatening his junior officials in this manner.In April last year, BJP MP from Barabanki, Priyanka Singh Rawat had threatened to “skin a police officer alive.” Later, cricketer-turned-politician Chetan Chauhan, the BJP MLA from Naugawan seat in Amroha and UP sports minister, courted a controversy by threatening to “crucify” corrupt babus in the public distribution system.“What can you expect from officials of a government whose leaders use objectionable language regularly? Earlier, the ministers were doing it and now the bureaucrats are following in their footsteps,” BSP UP president Ram Achal Rajbhar said.

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