Suspended UP Bureaucrat Resigns To Take Up Acting Full-Time, May Contest Polls

Singh, who acted in the popular Netflix series 'Delhi Crime', is also considering a political plunge from his native Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, where he recently organised a Ganesh Puja which saw the participation of several Bollywood celebrities.

He is likely to focus on film and entertainment and may fight the next Lok Sabha polls, sources from Lucknow said.

The 2011-batch IAS officer from the UP cadre is married to his batchmate Durga Shakti Nagpal, who too had hit headlines in 2014-2015 for taking action against Samajwadi Party leaders during the Akhilesh Yadav government.

She was posted as Noida Sub-Divisional Magistrate then. She too was suspended by the then state government but later both proceeded on central deputation in Delhi. Currently, she is the district magistrate of Banda in UP.

Singh, a relatively junior officer who has not completed even 15 years in service, was suspended for the second time in February after he proceeded on leave without official sanction. Earlier, he was suspended briefly in 2014.

He had gone on leave in February this year after he was unceremoniously removed from the post of general observer during the Gujarat assembly elections in 2022 for posting pictures of himself with his official vehicle on social media.

Election Commission officials deemed his action a violation of protocols and a “publicity stunt”. Singh, however, had insisted he did not violate any code.

On X (previously Twitter), he had said that he accepted the EC's decision with “all humility”. “Though I believe there's nothing wrong in this post. A public servant, in a car bought by public's money, reporting for public duty, with public officials, communicating it to the public. It is neither publicity nor a stunt (sic)."