A tweet by a top IPS officer in Jammu and Kashmir has kicked up a storm at high places in the fledgling Union Territory as it appears to hint that police chief Dilbag Singh apparently owns a big estate in Jammu.

Basant Rath, an inspector-general-rank officer who has been left without an assignment following multiple run-ins with authorities, on Friday responded to a tweet of a Twitter user called Dilbag Singh, who had shared an old article on the officer distributing books for free.

“Hi Dilbag Singh. Can I call you Dilloo? Are you the one who owns 50 canals of land in Sarore near the dental college? Is it registered on your name?” Rath tweeted. Although the “Dilbag Singh” Rath was responding to was not the Jammu and Kashmir police chief, the comments were seen as directed at the top cop.

Some also saw mischief in Rath writing “canal” instead of kanal, a measurement of land equivalent of 0.125 acres, claiming that the officer could be suggesting through the “deliberate” mistake that his target could be someone else. When someone pointed this out, Rath said he had done so “deliberately”.

Rath’s post touched a raw nerve with DGP Dilbag Singh himself responding. The top cop posted on a WhatsApp group of journalists and bureaucrats named Kashmir Firstpost: “See he doesn’t even know whether it’s 2 kanals or 50 kanals. He is poor at home work. Shame on the ips officer who has risen to become igp and is dumped without any work because everytime he is given some responsibility he proves to be a joker and useless.

“I challenge him to prove an inch of land or property or any business worth a penny is in my name or my family or in somebody else’s name on my behalf. Or let’s take him to task.”

Rath did not respond to calls and text messages from The Telegraph. A source close to him wondered why the DGP had taken affront when Rath was reacting to someone else.

Valley IGP Vijay Kumar accused Rath of “indiscipline”.

DGP Dilbag Singh’s predecessor S.P. Vaid too had warned Rath of “action under law” in 2018 for using unorthodox ways to discipline traffic as the traffic police chief of Jammu and Kashmir.

Last year, Rath was removed as IGP traffic after a public brawl with Srinagar mayor Junaid Mattoo.