Why is the CBI, which had been unwilling to probe even the very serious cases in Kerala citing shortage of personnel and excess of cases at hand as reasons, suddenly keen on investigating a case of an IPS officer going on leave to teach in a private collegeIJ The Kerala Government which thinks that the move is suspicious and the probe agency have locked horns over the issue.
The CBI had the other day told the High Court that it was willing to hold a probe in the allegation against Jacob Thomas, presently Director of the Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, that he had taken leave to teach in a private college when he was Managing Director of the Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation in 2009.
In an affidavit filed in response to a petition seeking a probe against Thomas, the agency also wanted the case to be handed over to it for investigation. According to the CBI, it was serious lapse on the part of the IPS official, now in the rank of DGP, to go on leave for teaching in an institution out of personal interests and that the matter should be probed by an agency like it.
Following this, Jacob Thomas wrote to the CBI Director saying that the agency had filed the affidavit without following the procedures required to be complied with when acting against an officer with the rank of DGP and wanting to know whether the action had been taken with the knowledge of the agency’s chief.
The Kerala Government opposed the agency’s action in the court when it considered the petition on Wednesday. It said that the CBI act of submitting an affidavit expressing willingness to investigate the charge against the IPS official in a case, in which even the primary arguments had not yet started, was strange and suspicious.
It also argued that it was quite unnatural that the investigating agency, which had shown lack of willingness to probe serious cases like those pertaining to the 2003 Marad massacre and the brutal
murder of rebel Marxist TP Chandrasekharan in 2012, was expressing interest in taking up the case against the Vigilance Director.
The Government, which pointed out that the allegation against Jacob Thomas had already been looked into, questioned the purpose of holding another investigation over the same issue. It also pointed out that Jacob Thomas had returned the money he had received from the institution for the services he had rendered there.