Thiruvananthapuram, Jan. 8: IAS officers in Kerala appeared set on taking mass casual leave tomorrow to protest a series of corruption cases filed against senior bureaucrats by the IPS head of the state's anti-graft watchdog, media reports have said.
Repeated calls to Tom Jose, president of the state IAS Officers Association, went unanswered but no civil servant had till evening denied the reports.
Kerala's babus want the Left Democratic Front government to rein in Jacob Thomas, director of the state's vigilance and anti-corruption bureau, whom they accuse of "abusing his powers".
According to a WhatsApp message from a purported IAS officer, a meeting of his peers here yesterday "requested'' colleagues to take leave tomorrow "to show our solidarity with our aggrieved colleagues".
Action against three bureaucrats late last year had already left the babus seething at Thomas. What precipitated matters was the bureau's decision last week to make Paul Antony, additional chief secretary (industries), a co-accused in a corruption case against former industries minister E.P. Jayarajan.
Jayarajan had to resign last October amid a scandal over his appointment of nephew K.P. Sudheer Nambiar as managing director of the public sector Kerala State Industrial Enterprises Limited. Nambiar, son of Jayarajan's sister-in-law and CPM central committee member P.K. Sreemathi, apparently lacked the required qualifications.
IAS officers feel that Antony has been unfairly targeted for merely implementing written orders from his minister. They believe the action was "vindictive", for Antony had opposed the bureau's arrest of IAS officer K. Padmakumar, then head of the public sector Malabar Cements Ltd, in a corruption case in September.
Thomas, a 1985-batch IPS officer and known as an anti-corruption crusader, was chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's choice for the vigilance director's post after his government assumed power last May.
Thomas had allegedly been victimised by the previous United Democratic Front government and shifted out of the bureau after he went after its ministers in a bar licence scam.
This made him the ideal choice for the vigilance director's post under the Left, whose poll campaign had drawn heavily on the corruption scandals around the previous government.
Thomas quickly became a bete noire for the babus. In October last year, the bureau wrote to the chief secretary recommending action in a disproportionate assets case against Jose, the IAS Officers Association president.
The letter claimed preliminary evidence against Jose and alleged irregularities in the import of magnesium when Jose headed Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd.
The same month, a team of vigilance sleuths paid a "visit" to the home of K.M. Abraham, another additional chief secretary, in connection with a wealth case.
Abraham, credited with action against the Sahara Group during his tenure as head of market watchdog Sebi, has a clean image. He complained to the chief minister that the vigilance team had not followed procedure while searching his home.
A group of IAS officers met the chief secretary and said Thomas's actions had affected their morale. Thomas denied knowledge of the "visit" but the babus weren't appeased.
They dusted off his old files and accused him of past encroachment on ecologically sensitive land in Karnataka and amassment of unaccounted wealth amounting to Rs 35-40 crore.
Yesterday's WhatsApp note said: "We are deeply aggrieved and saddened that such an officer, whose integrity is prima facie doubtful and not beyond suspicion, is allowed to sit in judgement as vigilance director on the conduct of other civil servants."
So far, Vijayan has stood by Thomas. Contacted, a former chief secretary said: "No comments."
