In a shocking contrast to usual practice, Kerala’s suspended IAS officer N Prasanth (IAS:2007:KL) has sought an explanation from the Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan (IAS:1990:KL) for the charge memo issued against him for breach of discipline.
Prasanth wrote a letter to the chief secretary and sought clarification on several points. His stance is that he will respond to the charge memo only after receiving a reply to his letter. The state government is said to be highly upset with Prasanth’s actions.
Prasanth was suspended for allegedly making defamatory remarks about additional chief secretary A Jayathilak (IAS:1991:KL) and former industries director K Gopalakrishnan (IAS:2013:KL) through social media posts.
Subsequently, as part of a departmental inquiry, chief secretary Sarada Muraleedharan issued a charge memo. But Prasanth, instead of responding to the memo, has now shot off a letter seeking clarifications from the chief secretary.
Prasanth said that none of the duo filed any formal complaint against him, so there was no rationale behind the government issuing a memo on its own. He questions why he was not given a chance to present his side before the suspension and the issuance of the charge memo.
He has raised several questions like who collected the screenshots of his social media posts that were attached to the charge memo. His point is the screenshots he received show a private individual’s account, indicating that the charge memo was prepared based on a private account. He, thus, questions how information collected by a private individual entered government’s files.
Prasanth is reported to have not received a response yet.
