Thiruvananthapuram: An apparent game of one-upmanship between officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) in Kerala have put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in a spot.
Following a raid at the residence of senior IAS officer K.M. Abraham on Thursday, vigilance and anticorruption officials on Friday conducted a raid at the residence of another senior IAS officer, Tom Jose.
Heading the vigilance department is IPS officer Jacob Thomas, and IAS officials feel that the raids are a revenge for Thomas facing charges of wasting government money during one of his earlier assignments.
In a surprise move on Friday morning, vigilance officials reached the residences of Jose in the state capital and in Kochi for searches. However, no search was conducted at the Kochi residence because no one was present there.
The raid followed a complaint that the apartment purchased by Jose in Kochi would come under the provisions of assets disproportionate to known sources of income. The IAS officer is also facing charges of purchasing a 20-hectare estate in Maharashtra state. Jose denied the allegations, and has said all his deals have been above board and transparent.
In the state assembly, however, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan backed the vigilance director, pointing out that “there are some people who are keen not to have Jacob Thomas in the post of vigilance director”, and that there was an attempt to “smoke him out” from the post.
Referring to K.M. Abraham’s complaint that the raid at his home was conducted without following procedures, Viayan said that complaint would be looked into. However, the chief minister said Thomas was continuing in his post because “the government has faith in him”.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that there was a crisis of governance in the state because of the feuding of senior civil servants. “An additional chief secretary [ Abraham] has said that the vigilance director was attempting to threaten him,” Chennithala said.
