Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Jacob Thomas today (17 September 2015) expressed unhappiness over his transfer to the Kerala Police Housing and Construction Corporation from the Kerala Fire and Rescue Forces. Thomas, who holds the rank of Director General of Police (DGP), said the latest transfer was a sort of demotion for him, since the corporation was earlier headed by an officer of Additional DGP (ADGP) rank. However, the Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the decision to transfer Thomas on Wednesday was a collective decision of the state cabinet.
Jacob Thomas IPS (Image courtesy: madhyamam.com)
It is noteworthy that this was the second transfer of Jacob Thomas in last few months. Earlier, he had been transferred from the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau to the Kerala Fire and Rescue Forces. And, now, within a few months again, he has been transferred to Kerala Police Housing and Construction Corporation.
“In the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau, we launched a new scheme to tackle corruption and very soon I was moved out. In the new post (Fire and Rescue Forces), I had begun to bring about changes but now I have been moved out. Moreover, the post now given to me is headed by an ADGP. Hence, this is a sort of a demotion for me,” Thomas told the media here.
Jacob Thomas is an IPS officer of 1985 batch belonging to Kerala cadre.
During his stint with the Vigilance Bureau, Thomas took a tough stand in the infamous bar scam case, in which state Finance Minister K.M. Mani faced the heat. Just before a final report in the case was to be submitted, Thomas was moved out on the pretext that he had been promoted to the DGP rank.
He was then made the head of Kerala Fire and Rescue Forces, a post normally given to those who do not toe the political line. However, here also, Thomas allegedly found himself on the wrong side of powerful real estate lobby, when he insisted on strict implementation of fire and safety rules. After only three months, he has now been asked to head the Kerala Police Housing and Construction Corporation.
Leader of the opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, on Thursday said Thomas’ transfer indicated that the state government was dancing to the tunes of builders.
“Most high-rise and under-construction buildings do not follow fire and safety rules. When Thomas began to take tough decisions, the builders’ lobbies turned against him and pressurised the government to remove him,” Achuthanandan said in a press release here.
However, Chennithala told reporters here on Thursday “He (Thomas) was on leave for a while and since it is a key post, we decided to fill it. Moreover transfers and postings are vested with the state government and there is nothing beyond that.”
It may be pointed out that recently there was controversy over the transfer of another senior IPS officer Rishi Raj Singh also, who happens to be from the same 1985 batch. Political interference in the working of police is a well-known malaise in India and even the Supreme Court directions of 2006 for police reforms in the PIL filed by Prakash Singh (a former IPS officer and former DG of BSF) have not had much impact on the ground situation.
