Infighting among IAS, IPS officers to the fore in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Infight is brewing among IAS and IPS officers in Kerala with an IAS officer under suspension even demanding that a case should be registered against a couple of his colleagues, including a senior IAS officer who is in the list of Chief Secretary probable.

In the meantime, the state government is also learnt to be sitting on a request by a senior IPS officer to initiate action against a senior colleague, also a state police chief probable, for trying to link the former with gold smuggling racket.

IAS officer N Prasanth, who is under suspension for making critical remarks against additional chief secretary A Jayathilak and K Gopalakrishnan on social media, has made the demand to register a case against the two officers as well as a Malayalam daily for allegedly hatching a conspiracy against him. He made the post after a hearing before Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan on Wednesday in connection with his suspension.

Earlier Prasanth, who is popularly known as 'collector bro', also made social media post criticising the chief secretary's decision to decline his request for live streaming of the hearing. He cited that even court room proceedings are being live streamed now.

Prasanth was suspended last November while serving as agriculture special secretary. He is mainly attacking Jayathilak, who is a next chief secretary probable as Sarada Muraleedharan retires this month.

Meanwhile, government's indecision on a request of ADGP (intelligence) P Vijayan to take legal action against ADGP (battalions) M R Ajithkumar for giving a 'fake' statement that Vijayan had links with international gold smuggling rackets. Though there were reports that the state police chief Sheik Darvesh Saheb already gave a nod to Vijayan's request and the matter was pending at the Chief Minister's Office, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday that he was unaware of it.

The infights among the senior IPS officers are also happening at a time when the selection process for next state police chief began and Ajithkumar is also learnt to be among the probables.

Ajithkumar had faced several allegations, including meeting with RSS top leaders, creating trouble during last year's Thrissur Pooram festival by imposing excessive police regulations and amassing of disproportionate wealth. However, he is said to be maintaining personal connections with the chief minister.