Home Ministry wants action against suspended Kerala IG

Thiruvananthapuram: The Union Home Ministry has written to the Kerala chief secretary to initiate action against Tomin J Thachenkery, Inspector General of Police, currently under suspension for going on a foreign trip without official clearance and reportedly meeting people there who have cases registered against them.

Thachenkery was suspended in April after Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan was told that the police officer did not take permission for his trip to the Middle East including his visit to Doha.

The fresh round of controversy surfaced on Wednesday when a section of the media reported that the senior Kerala cop had met a few people in Qatar who have cases registered against them.

When this issue was put to Achuthanandan, he said the chief secretary would take necessary action on the reported letter from the Union Home Ministry.

"I do not intend to share details of this with you," Achuthanandan said.

But, on Thursday a TV channel aired the letter written by the Home Ministry to the chief secretary highlighting the lapses and the serious violations committed by Thachenkery.

The letter has asked the chief secretary to initiate action against Thachenkery.

The letter says that Thachenkery had asked officials of the Indian embassy in Qatar about details of four people who have links with now arrested south Indian commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) T. Nasir.

Incidentally, Thachenkery as IG Kannur range prior to his suspension had questioned Nasir at Bangalore.

The letter also says that Thachenkery while in Qatar met people who have cases registered against them in the state.

"He is just a tool of Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. You wait and see more skeletons will tumble out," Vice chairman of Kerala Congress (M) P.C. George said.

This is the second suspension that Thachenkery has got under the Achuthanandan government. The first came in July 2007 when he was suspended in the wake of a first information report (FIR) filed in a vigilance court, accusing him of amassing assets worth Rs.95 lakh between Jan 1, 2003, and March 31, 2005, when he was managing director of the state-owned Books and Publication Society.

Thachenkery, considered close to Vijayan, was in the Middle East the same time Vijayan and other senior party members were on tour there as part of a fund collection drive.