Many went on such trips,only I got the stick: Thachankary plea to CAT

IPS officer Tomin J Thachankary,who had been suspended on charges of going abroad without government sanction,has drawn half-a-dozen IPS and IAS officials into the controversy to get the disciplinary action against him revoked. In a fresh bunch of documents submitted at the Kochi bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT),where he had petitioned against the suspension,he has said that while the government had not taken any disciplinary action against the IPS and IAS officials who had gone aboard without prior permission,he had been “selectively suspended”,telling upon the double standard in dealing with the officials who had flown abroad without prior sanction. The CAT will consider the plea on Friday.

While replying to the government on his traveling,the IG said 30 IPS-IAS officials and 600 other government staff had gone abroad in anticipation of ratification for their trips. Hence,his trip should be considered leniently.

However,DGP Jacob Punnose,in his report to the Chief Secretary,asked how the officer was privy to such information. The DGP had said his office had no idea about the correctness of the figures given by Thachankary. Some of the officials named by Thachankary had informally denied the allegation levelled against them,said the DGP.

Thachankary singled out IG R Sreelekha,saying that she had gone abroad without permission in her capacity as MD of a co-operative firm in 2006 and incurred a loss of Rs 67,000 for the government. The disciplinary action against Sreelekha was limited to a warning from the government,Thachankary said,after submitting relevant documents to substantiate his charges against five fellow bureaucrats.