Kerala ex-DGP Jacob Thomas dresses up in traditional RSS attire

The 1985 batch IPS officer attended the Pada sanchalan held as part of Vijayadashami celebrations in Kochi.

Thiruvananthapuram: After an eventful IPS career that ended by sleeping inside his office room on the last day in service, Kerala former director general of police rank officer Jacob Thomas has once again came out with a dramatic move of becoming part of the RSS.

Dressed up in RSS traditional attire, Thomas attended the RSS Pada sanchalan held as part of Vijayadashami celebrations in Kochi on Wednesday. He  said on the occasion that RSS works with the aims of empowering individuals and it has no religion or caste.

Thomas is the third ex-DGP in Kerala to be part of BJP-Sangh Parivar camps. Former state police chief T P Senkumar and former DGP R Sreelekha are the others.

Even as the BJP and Sangh Parivar could make use of Thomas's association with RSS for fueling their ongoing efforts to woo the Christian vote banks of Kerala, one has to wait and see if Thomas's move could make any impact.

Thomas, who was a 1985 batch IPS officer, was known as a no non-sense officer. During the 35 years long service, the IPS officer was mostly kept off the mainstream policing jobs and was in uniform service hardly for five years. 

He became a persona non grata for the CPI(M) after the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau initiated a case against then industries minister and senior leader E P Jayarajan on nepotism charges during the initial months of the first Pinarayi Vijayan government from 2016 to 2021. Thomas was then heading the vigilance and the vigilance also initiated actions against two senior IAS officers, which also irked the Pinarayi government.

Thereafter, he was placed under suspension for a couple of times on charges of criticising the Pinarayi government for law and order breakdown, lapses in extending relief to the Ockhi cyclone hit people and authoring a service story without government's permission.

His no nonsense image suffered a setback after allegations of forest land encroachment at Kodagu and corruption in dredger purchase while serving as director of Ports in Kerala surfaced.

Even as Thomas sought voluntary retirement from service hardly one year ahead of his retirement date, the government denied permission. There were rumours that he had then plans to contest the 2019 by projecting him as an anti-corruption crusader.

On May 30, 2020 Thomas made a dramatic move of sleeping in his office room on his last day of service. Thomas, who was then serving as managing director of the state run public sector undertaking The Metal Industries, himself posted pictures of bedsheet and pillow on his office floor. Holding an axe made at the unit, he told reporters that he was beginning the next role in his life with Parasurama's axe.

It was in 2021 that he joined the BJP by accepting membership from party president J P Nadda. Though he contested the 2021 Assembly election as BJP candidate at Inrinjakuda in Thrissur, he could not make much impact and finished in third place only.

Announcing his decision to work with the RSS, the ex-IPS officer had said that he got attracted to RSS ideologies way back in 1990s and it is the largest organization that works for people's empowerment.