According to official sources, two IAS officers, K Gopalakrishnan and N Prasanth, were suspended by the Left-led Kerala government on Monday for disciplinary infractions.
They stated that Prasanth was disciplined for publicly attacking a senior IAS officer on social media, while Gopalakrishnan was suspended for forming a WhatsApp group of government officials based on religion.
They added that the officers’ suspension was imposed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in response to the Chief Secretary’s report. Prasanth served as the Special Secretary in the Department of Agriculture Development and Farmers’ Welfare, while Gopalakrishnan was the Director of Industries and Commerce.
Recently, Prasanth accused Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak of “orchestrating baseless” news reports against him on Facebook.
Prasanth said in his article that Jayathilak had turned into a “special reporter” and was attempting to discredit him by disseminating baseless claims via the press.
Attacking Jayathilak, the post read, “I feel compelled to share some important facts about Jayathilak, a senior IAS officer, that the public deserves to know. Although I generally avoid discussing government matters in public, there seems to be no alternative at this point. My intention is to reveal only those issues that the public has the right to know, in accordance with the Right to Information.”
The problem arose after a media article accused Prasanth of failing to maintain certain important documents from ‘Unnathi’, an organisation that works to improve the lives of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), which had suddenly vanished while he was its CEO. Additionally, the report stated that Jayathilak had given Chief Minister Vijayan a report on the subject.
Known as “Collector Bro,” Prasanth, who was Kozhikode District Collector and held other high-ranking positions, has previously written on Facebook to deny the accusations made against him.
After Gopalakrishnan complained that his WhatsApp account was being exploited to build religious WhatsApp groups, the Kerala police looked into the claims against him.
The state police head received a report from the Thiruvananthapuram city police after they completed an investigation.
Despite police-cited sources indicating that the IAS officer’s phone was not infiltrated, Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner Sparjan Kumar said that since the device had been “reset,” it is still unknown if it was compromised.
Officers from other communities were added to the contentious WhatsApp group, which was branded a Hindu communal group. Gopalakrishnan said in his police report that he had not added any cops to the aforementioned group.
Kerala Revenue Minister K Rajan had earlier in the day stated that government employees should adhere to specific rules while they are employed and that those who do not will face severe consequences.
According to him, the government cannot permit officials to work in defiance of service regulations and policies.
Regarding certain recent Facebook statements made by Prasanth against his senior colleague Jayathilak that caused controversy in the state, the minister was answering queries from reporters.
Rajan had stated that the government was treating the issue with “utmost seriousness” and that the Chief Secretary will provide a report on it shortly, but he did not name any authorities.
“After getting this, the chief minister will take a stringent decision on this,” he had stated.
