“I have not violated any rules, I have not done anything wrong in this matter,” says Mohammed Mohsin, the IAS officer who was suspended for checking the helicopter in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was travelling.

Mohsin, who was suspended by the Election Commission on April 16 for checking the Prime Minister’s helicopter in Odisha’s Sambalpur town, said he had acted “strictly as per the letter and spirit of the ECI guidelines”.

He said he has asked the poll panel for a copy of the report against him “but they have so far not shared this. I am fighting this case in the dark,” he told media.

"Not in one place has it been mentioned under which section or rule I have been suspended,” he told ThePrint. "I have no friends or enemies in any political party… I only go by rules, so I should at least be told which rule I have violated."

 His suspension was revoked by the poll panel on April 25 following a stay from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

Mohsin had challenged his suspension before the CAT, alleging that the EC action was “high-handed, mala fide and is not in good faith”.

Opposition parties had expressed outrage over his suspension, saying there was no rule that exempted anyone from such checks during polls.

The CAT, in its  order, said, "it cannot be said that SPG Protectees are eligible for anything and everything" and added that election officials have checked the private vehicles of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy more than once and no action followed and that Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s vehicles were also checked.

The tribunal noted that it was apparently PM Modi's security detail which complained about the officer ordering video recording of Prime Minister's helicopter from a distance.

The CAT also referred to the controversy over a black trunk that was seen being hauled away from the Prime Minister's helicopter during a rally in Karnataka, saying "questions were raised about it but apparently no action followed".

 Though the EC revoked his suspension, it asked the officer to report back to the Karnataka government and also held him guilty of "dereliction of duty". It recommended that the state government initiate disciplinary action against him.

 "I was doing my duty. On the spur of the moment they have suspended me. I have not received a single report that can tell me what I have done. I am fighting for myself in the dark," he told NDTV.

Mohsin said he had ordered videography according to EC guidelines. 

He also questioned why the SPG never objected when he asked for videography. "I did it in consultation with SPG, so why didn't they tell us the rules were different for protectees? The answers are just not coming,” said Mohsin, adding he would fight it in the court of law. "I am a career bureaucrat with 22 years of service. I don't belong to any party. I go by rules."

An officer of the 1996 Karnataka cadre, Mohsin was Secretary, Backward Classes Welfare Department in Karnataka, and was appointed as General Election Observer of Sambalpur Parliamentary Constituency.

“The observer’s duty is to see that video teams are utilised in a proper manner. So, I advised them and left the place. I went to the venue of the function and sat there for five minutes in the police control room. By then the collector had joined me… Later, while sitting in the DC’s office, I got a call from the Deputy Chief Election Commissioner asking if I had ordered for frisking to be carried out, which I denied. He wanted a report and I replied. All of a sudden around 11.30 pm they suspended me,” he said.

 In his plea to the CAT, Mohsin wrote: "An act of an authorised officer searching the helicopter used by the Prime Minister for election campaign should not have been treated as a violation of any of the instructions but the officers ought to have been lauded by the commission...The Election Commission should have protected the officer for his integrity and courage which he exhibited to show that every citizen however highly placed is not above the law.

“If the officer videographed the helicopter from a distance, the same ought to have been appreciated as the Prime Minister is also a politician and is not above the law. The officer who videographed did nothing which he should not have done under the guidelines,” he stated.

 "By videographing the helicopter, no insulting act was committed. If somebody strongly feels that somebody has been insulted, it indicates that there is something to be hidden. If somebody is irked for no fault of the officer performing his duty, he cannot be targeted by using the commission as a Election Observer’s presence may irk the Prime Minister and his party. As PM of this country, he was required to voluntarily allow a search which would have enhanced his image. He should be a model to the other political parties and his own party members...,” it was contended in his application.