KOCHI: Former IPS officer K Radhakrishnan, who was allegedly harassed and denied retirement benefits for not toeing the CPM line in a murder case, claimed that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan behaved in a rude manner when he pleaded for mercy.
“I met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his chamber in August 2018 seeking to revoke my suspension. I told him that all my resources have dried up as the government has blocked my salary and there is no other option for me but to commit suicide along with the family. His response was ‘ennal angane avatte’ (Then let it be so). I was shocked. I walked out of the CM’s chamber with a heavy heart. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I collapsed on a chair in the corridors as I felt giddy,” he reminisced.
TNIE had on Thursday reported the plight of the retired IPS who is now working as a security officer at a private company in a neighbouring state to support his family. Radhakrishnan alleged that in 2016, he was suspended from service for four-and-a-half years, tortured mentally and physically and was denied retirement and pension benefits as he refused to accept the narrative of the CPM as the investigation officer in the 2006 Muhammad Fazal murder case.
According to him, he was removed from the investigation, falsely implicated in a case and suspended for two years in 2006. “People from my community (Scheduled Caste) rarely get to such key posts and my ordeal proves that the scourge of untouchability continues in society. People prefer to keep us out of the corridors of power,” said Radhakrishnan, a native of Thalayolaparambu in Kottayam district.
Radhakrishnan was again suspended in 2016 based on a complaint filed by a Joint Excise Commissioner that he submitted a false report against the officer before the High Court. He had to fight the case from the Central Administrative Tribunal to the Supreme Court to get his suspension revoked. Even after the Supreme Court ordered to reinstate him, Radhakrishnan had to file a contempt petition to get a favourable order from the government.
‘My pleas for provisional pension were rejected’
But Radhakrishnan’s pleas to release the salary for the suspension period went unheeded. Radhakrishnan was served two memos a day before his retirement on April 29, 2021. One was related to an alleged case of custodial torture reported in 2004 and the other based on a complaint filed by the Joint Excise Commissioner (JEC) in 2016 for which he was suspended.
According to Radhakrishnan, the JEC had submitted a report before the High Court favouring the accused in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act case and a verification conducted by him proved the officer wrong. “The CAT had ordered regularisation of my broken service in July 2021. My pleas for provisional pension were rejected mercilessly.
I had submitted a memorandum to the chief secretary in August pointing out that slapping charges on me even after years of torture and mental harassment amounted to violation of human rights and atrocity against a scheduled caste member. But there was no response,” he said.
Radhakrishnan said his daughter, who is a research scholar, has opted for part-time research as the family cannot afford her hostel expenses. His son, a postgraduate, dropped out of the civil service coaching course. Radhakrishnan had to sell his family property to fight the case against suspension and his house was auctioned by the bank as he defaulted on loan repayment.