Kerala Bureaucrat N Prashanth Seeks Explanation From Chief Secretary Over Charge Memo

Prashanth who is under suspension asked why was the charge memo issued to him without a complaint.

Thiruvananthapuram: N Prashanth, an IAS officer who is under suspension, has sought an explanation for the charge memo issued to him by the state Chief Secretary Saradha Muraleedharan for posts on fellow bureaucrats on social media. Prashanth said he was issued the memo without a complaint. He said he will respond to the charge memo only after the Chief Secretary's reply.

Prashanth said IAS officers Jai Tilak and Gopalakrishnan have not filed a complaint against his Facebook posts but still the charge memo was issued to him. He asked why was his version not heard before he was suspended. "Who collected my Facebook posts? From which account was it collected? Which officer collected this? If it was collected by a private person, how did the information end up in the government file? Did you make sure that the Facebook post was not fake?", Prashanth asked in his letter to the Chief Secretary.

Prashanth, the Special Secretary of the state Agriculture Department, was suspended for allegedly abusing Additional Chief Secretary Jayathilak and Industries Department Director K Gopalakrishnan on social media. Later, Chief Secretary Saradha Muraleedharan issued him a charge memo as part of departmental action.

Earlier, Prashanth had sent a legal notice to Muraleedharan, additional chief secretary A Jayathilak, industries director K Gopalakrishnan and a local newspaper, accusing them for forgery and criminal conspiracy against him. The officer has also demanded a public apology and called for a detailed investigation into the allegations. The notice claimed that the alleged conspiracy was orchestrated by Gopalakrishnan and Jayathilak. It alleged that Jayathilak had prepared a one-sided report accusing Prashanth, former CEO of the government institution Unnati, of hiding files and forging attendance records.