An inspector-general of police in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir fearing a danger to his life may be considered an occupational hazard.

Except that the potential threat whom IGP Home Guard Basant Rath has identified in his police complaint is his boss and the police chief of the Union Territory, Dilbagh Singh.

“Requesting you to take note of my apprehensions about my life, liberty and bald head, the reason being certain activities of Sh Dilbagh Singh, IPS, 1987 batch, presently DGP,” his complaint to Jammu’s Gandhi Nagar police station reads.

Rath, a 2000-batch IPS officer from Odisha who is much-loved in the Valley for his tendency to ruffle feathers at the top of an unpopular administration, is known to make fun of his baldheadedness.

Last week, he had provoked Singh into a verbal brawl over social media by appearing to insinuate the director-general of police may own benami land in the Union Territory.

Rath provided the first hint about his complaint in a Facebook post on Thursday, tweaking a famous line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to imply he was being “roasted” by someone.

“I visited a police station today. 5.54A.M. Something is being roasted in the state of D. D for Denmark,” he wrote. “And I bought a second hand oven. It roasts root vegetables effortlessly. Without Bijli.”

The allusion was to the line “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” from Hamlet.

His police complaint, which asks for “this letter (to be) a part of the daily diary in your station”, says: “Today. Now. In case something bad happens to me, you should know whose number you should dial. With due respect.”

It adds: “I am writing to you to take note of my genuine apprehensions about my safety and reputation. I am doing it as a private citizen of this country. Not as a civil servant. Not as a police officer. I am not asking you to lodge an FIR against the person mentioned above.”

Singh did not respond to a text message from this newspaper. Rath declined comment and would not clarify how the DGP was endangering his life.

The controversy started when the IGP reacted to a Twitter user, also called Dilbag Singh, who had shared an old article about Rath 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.

While the Dilbagh the IGP was responding to was just a namesake, it was clear that Rath’s real target was the DGP.

Some also detected mischief in Rath writing “canal” instead of “kanal”, a measurement of land equivalent of 0.125 acres, suggesting the officer was keeping an escape hatch open if things got too hot.

When someone flagged the misspelling, Rath said it was “deliberate”.

Rath’s tweet appeared to touch a raw nerve with the DGP, who hit back with a message 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,” Singh wrote.

Rath had two years ago been removed as IGP traffic after cracking down on VIP violators in Srinagar, which endeared him further among the populace. His transfer came after a public brawl with Srinagar mayor Junaid Mattoo.

“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,” the DGP wrote.

Many in the WhatsApp group see themselves as “nationalists” and are known for their anti-militancy stand. Some of them called for action against Rath.