Suspended Kerala IAS Officer Prasanth Raises Promotion Demand During Hearing

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The sparring between suspended Kerala IAS officer N. Prasanth and Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan continues unabated, with Prasanth demanding immediate action on his much-delayed promotion.

After his hearing before Muraleedharan was completed, Prasanth on Thursday took to Facebook and shared the details of what happened during the meeting.

The 2007-batch IAS officer was suspended after he made serious allegations against senior bureaucrats, including Additional Chief Secretary A. Jayathilak (1991-batch), IAS officer K. Gopalakrishnan (2013-batch), and Chief Secretary Muraleedharan herself.

He had also served them with legal notices, accusing them of fabricating charges and conspiring against him.

He wrote in his FB page that since he was busy after the hearing he was not able to respond to the numerous calls and messages that he received asking about it.

“I brought to their attention my promotion which has been hanging fire since 2022, as the rule states promotion issues should be settled in a matter of six months. I want to get my promotion and each file should not turn out to be one, where one’s life is at stake”, he said.

“To initiate action against the FB post I made is foolhardy and against the All India Service rules and to commence another probe should not be done,” he added.

“A case should be registered against Jayathilak, Gopalakrishnan and Mathurbhumi newspaper for conspiring against me and for making fake documents.

“The rule of law is also applicable to the Government and it should not behave in a manner that those aggrieved can resort to legal redress. This does not augur well for governance. Till now I have not filed any case against the government and please do not open an avenue for that,” he added.

“My appeal is that there need be no hurry to revoke my suspension without addressing all these issues which I have raised,” wrote Prasanth.

The controversy centers around an enquiry report allegedly prepared by Jayathilak, which accused Prasanth of being responsible for missing documents linked to the Unnathi project during his tenure as CEO, irregularities in his attendance records, and violations of service conduct, including making derogatory social media posts.

However, Prasanth has maintained the case against him has been built on unreliable digital evidence and lacks procedural and legal merit. He also targeted Jayathilak and Gopalakrishnan for his suspension.

Complicating the matter is the fact that while Muraleedharan will superannuate on April 30 this year, Jayathilak is widely tipped to replace her.