Suspended Kerala IAS officers face serious charges

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has suspended two senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, K Gopalakrishnan and N Prashant, over allegations of grave indiscipline and actions that undermined the state’s administrative machinery.

The suspension orders, issued late on Monday, cite violations of service rules and a series of actions that the state government deemed unbecoming of civil servants.

In the case of Gopalakrishnan, who served as the Director of Industries, the authorities accused him of creating a religion-based WhatsApp group for government officials. The order stated that this was “intended to foment division, sow disunity and break the solidarity within the cadres of the All India Services in the State.”

Regarding N Prashant, who held the position of Agriculture Special Secretary, the authorities accused him of making “derogatory statements” on social media against a senior IAS officer, A Jayathilak, the Additional Chief Secretary of the Finance Department.

“The remarks, prima facie, also have the potential of creating divisiveness and disaffection in the Indian Administrative Service in the state that can also affect service to the public,” the order said, adding that such statements were “unbecoming of an officer borne in the cadre of the Indian Administrative Service.”

Commenting on the suspensions, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated that

the actions were taken based on the report submitted by the Chief Secretary.