Thiruvananthapuram: In an unprecedented step, a director-general of police in Kerala is likely to file a court case against the state chief minister for alleged defamation.
Local media reports say Indian Police Service officer Jacob Thomas has already sent a letter to the state chief secretary, Jiji Thomson, seeking permission for the legal action. Thomas is hurt by some of the public remarks that chief minister Oommen Chandy made against him.
Thomas was removed from the fire and rescue department, apparently because he had refused to give certificates to dozens of new buildings, claiming they did not meet safety criteria.
The senior police officer is aggrieved and feels some of the statements by the chief minister are derogatory to him. If Thomas does move the court, it would likely be the first time in the state’s history that a senior bureaucrat takes legal recourse against the chief minister.
Thomas has not made any public comment about the likelihood of a legal move against the chief minister. However, local media reports indicate that he is aggrieved by the chief minister’s recent remark, “When the whole world grows vertically, should Kerala be growing downwards?”
Thomas has reason to believe that the statement was an insult to him for not having cleared several building projects. The senior police officer had some consolation of sorts when Anil Kant, the bureaucrat with whom the government replaced Thomas, also subscribed to Thomas’ stand in the matter of inadequate safety measures in some of the new buildings.
