Suspended Kerala IAS officer Prasanth in no mood to relent, will approach CAT

Thiruvananthapuram (The Uttam Hindu): Hours after he was served the suspension orders, senior IAS official N. Prasanth (Special Secretary, Agriculture) was in a combative mood which showed that he would not relent, and apart from approaching the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), he appears to have other plans too. Prasanth expressed his displeasure in the manner in which the suspension orders were effected as he was not asked for any explanation; he has termed this as a display of fascist tendency.

He also expressed his ire stating that freedom of expression is something that’s guaranteed and he doesn’t recall having breached the boundaries. “I have not seen the orders and IAS was not my sole ambition as I have other interests too,” said Prasanth. It was late on Monday night that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan suspended two IAS officials after Chief Secretary Sarada Muralidharan found them on the wrong foot for their deeds of violating discipline. Prasanth was suspended after he openly took on Additional Chief Secretary A. Jayathilak and posted his picture on social media, accusing him of not following the accepted norms when it came to official files, besides falsifying his attendance and remaining absent.

Incidentally, along with the suspension order of Prasanth came another suspension order for Kerala Industry and Commerce Director K. Gopalakrishnan, who is yet to react to it. Gopalakrishnan ran into trouble after a state minister assured that an investigation would be done into a WhatsApp group named ‘Mallu Hindu Officers’ allegedly administered by Gopalakrishnan. He tried to wriggle out by stating that his phone was hacked and registered a complaint with the police. Police, after investigation, got a report from Meta and the forensic authorities that hacking was not found and this led to him getting suspended. In Kerala, serving of suspension orders of two IAS officials on a single day is a rarity.