J-K Chief Secretary S S Kapoor today summoned senior IAS officer and Governor S K Sinha’s Principal Secretary Arun Kumar — who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Amarnath Shrine Board — regarding statements that he made during a press conference on Tuesday.

“I had a conversation (to him) about it. He told me he has already issued a rebuttal,” Kapoor told The Indian Express, adding that at this time they were not seeking an explanation officially. Sources added that Kumar was warned against making political statements violating service conduct rules.

At the press conference yesterday, Kumar had blamed politicians playing “communal politics against the (shrine) board” for being behind the recent controversies. The IAS officer had also made a comparison between the board and the J-K Muslim Waqf Board, saying “there is also a Muslim Waqf Board and nobody interferes in its matters”.

The board was a separate religious body and “it is not necessary for people to interfere into its every matter”, he added.

Raj Bhavan too came out with a clarification today on Kumar’s statements, with a spokesperson claiming that his remarks had been “twisted to convey wrong meaning”.

As an example, the spokesperson claimed that while Kumar had specified that no time limit was given in the government order transferring the land at Baltal to the shrine, a newspaper headline said: “Land Transfer Permanent: CEO”, “We won’t return it”.