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The Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala has suspended two officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on disciplinary grounds. K Gopalakrishnan, director of Industries and Commerce, faced the action over a religion-based WhatsApp group for government officials. N Prashanth, Agriculture Development and Farmers' Welfare department's special secretary, was suspended after he criticised and made serious allegations against a senior officer.
According to officials, the Chief Minister has taken action against the officers following a report by Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan.
Mr Gopalakrishnan, a 2013-batch officer, has been suspended for creating a WhatsApp group named "Mallu Hindu Officers" last month. Following a row, the IAS officer had claimed that his phone was hacked. According to officials, a forensic examination of the phone did not establish that it was hacked and found that the phone was formatted amid the row.
Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner Sparjan Kumar stated that it is unclear whether the device was compromised because it had been "reset".
In the case of 2007-batch officer N Prashanth, the action followed his outburst against Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak in a Facebook post. He accused the senior officer of orchestrating baseless news reports against him. Mr Prashanth alleged that Mr Jayathilak was working to undermine him by spreading unfounded allegations. He described the senior officer as a "psychopath".
The outburst followed a media report that claimed several files of 'Unnathi' -- an initiative aimed at the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes -- went missing during Mr Prashanth's tenure as its CEO. Mr Prashanth has earlier worked as Kozhikode District Collector, among other roles. He is quite active on social media and is popularly known as 'Collector Bro'.
Mr Prashanth has told a news channel that he had not received the details regarding the action against him. "This is a new experience for me. Criticising the government or its policies is wrong and action can be taken. I don't think anyone will be of the opinion that I have done anything like that. My criticism was aimed at certain individuals' inappropriate tendencies, particularly regarding fabricated reports. Evidence has also come to light regarding this. I trust that creating fake reports is not a government policy, but if criticising such actions leads to consequences, that's news to me," said the officer, who has called himself a "whistleblower".
He said the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression to all citizens. "I am unaware of any boundary I may have crossed within this right. Let's see the order, and then I will consider my next step. I was not born with a sole ambition of being an IAS officer. I have other interests and pursuits," he added.
Earlier, Kerala Revenue Minister K Rajan had said government officers should follow discipline while in service and anyone violating it them would face tough action.
The action against N Prashanth is also playing out against a political backdrop. Former state fisheries minister Mercykutty Amma has accused the IAS officer of working with leaders of the Opposition UDF in a conspiracy to bring corruption charges against her.