New Delhi: A provincial civil services (PCS) officer, Rinku Singh Rahee cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam 2021 with the rank of 683 and proved that hard work pays off. Rahee’s journey is inspiring for many others as he is the same person who was shot seven times in March 2009.
A 2007 batch PCS officer, Rahee exposed an Rs 83 crore scholarship scam during his services in Mujjafarnagar. Eight people were charged in the case and four were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
Those behind the scam decided to take revenge resulting in Rahee being shot with seven bullets, three of which hit his face, leaving him disfigured, blind in one eye, and with impaired hearing in one ear.
Rahee’s troubles did not end there as he was later sent to a psychiatric ward for protesting “too much” reported news agency IANS.
However, his fate did not stop Rahee from working towards what he believed would make a difference.
He told IANS, “During the course of my ordeal, I was not fighting the system. The system was fighting me. I was in hospital for four months but my medical leave is 'pending' for approval till date.”
As the results for UPSC exams 2021 were released, Rahee was overjoyed to have cleared the exam as this was his last attempt. He told NDTV that he appeared for it as his students kept telling him to try. Rahee has been teaching IAS aspirants for years.
While talking to NDTV, he said, “For me, public interest is important. If there is ever a clash between self-interest and public interest, I will choose public interest.”
40-year-old Rahee now has an eight-year-old son and he says that he has now learned to better deal with things as the first attack caught him off-guard.
"Now I make my observations very transparent and post them on social media because my death will remove all proof of scams," he said as his death would have meant the destruction of all the evidence in the scam.