The State government is likely to initiate a departmental inquiry against Director General of Police Jacob Thomas for his criticism of the administration’s endeavours to rescue fishers lost to the sea in the aftermath of Cyclone Ockhi.
A preliminary inquiry by the government had concluded that his comments on the emotive issue at a public meeting at the Press Club, Thiruvananthapuram, on December 9 had risked State security.
The report said the remarks were inflammatory and had the potential to cause severe law and order repercussions along the coast when hundreds of fisherfolk families were anguishing over the fate of their kin.
The government had also found no merit in Mr. Thomas’s reply that he had merely quoted facts and had no intention to malign the administration.
Officials privy to the process said the State had to nominate an officer senior in rank to Mr. Thomas to head the inquiry, possibly a top ranking bureaucrat.
The inquiring officer would slap a memo of charges on Mr. Thomas. He would also name an officer to present the charges against the DGP. Mr. Thomas could nominate an officer to defend him.
If the inquiry went against him, Mr. Thomas faced the extreme prospect of dismissal from service sans any benefit. He could be removed from service with benefits or stripped of his rank. The inquiry could also stop with a recommendation to censure him or bar his increment.
Mr .Thomas could challenge any adverse decision of the inquiring officer in the Central Administrative Tribunal first and later, if need be, in the High Court.
The controversial comments had earned Mr. Thomas, who was serving as director of the Indian Institute of Management in Government, a suspension this year.
