The Kerala government today suspended Director General of Police (DGP), Jacob Thomas, who is known as an anti-corruption crusader in the state, for criticising the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s response to cyclone Ockhi.

In a public speech at the Press Club on December 9, Thomas, who was heading the Institute of Management in Government (IMG), Kerala government’s apex body for training public officials, had asked whether the government would have responded to Cyclone Ockhi the same way as it did if the victims were the rich instead of the poor fisherfolk. Attacking the government, he had also said that the corrupt are united in Kerala to enjoy power. Rulers are unpopular and cannot win the confidence of ordinary people, he added.

According to The Hindu, the suspension came after a fortnight-long internal enquiry by the government that concluded that Thomas’s “criticism” of the State’s “endeavours” to rescue victims of Cyclone Ockhi was “prejudicial to the security of the State”.

Local media reported that the suspension order was issued following a direction from chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office.

Thomas’s speech was "certainly inflammatory in nature", the inquiry report said, as quoted by The Hindu. It was "prima facie aimed to exacerbate such feelings, which could have had serious repercussions on the law and order and peace along the coast,” the report stated.

Thomas, also the former Director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, had earned the status of an anti-graft crusader in Kerala during the previous UDF government. Moved out by the UDF government, Thomas was reinstated by Vijayan to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau when the LDF came to power in the state. However, within a year, Thomas was forced to take a long leave. Later, he was moved to IMG.

He had also invited the government’s wrath after the release of his autobiography, ‘Sravukalku Oppam Neenthumbol’ (Swimming With Sharks). The government initiated a probe into his book and it had found him guilty of violating the All India Service (AIS) Conduct Rules, 1968. The three-member probe committee had also recommended initiating criminal proceedings against him.

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