Kerala IPS officer gets bail in wealth case

trivandrum — A vigilance court in Kerala on Friday granted bail to senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Tomin J Thachankary, in a case related to amassment of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The case against Thachankary, who is now serving as managing director of Kerala State Cooperative Marketing Federation (Marketfed), is that he amassed Rs6.4 million through corrupt means during his service period between 2002 and 2007.

After granting the bail, the vigilance court at Trichur posted the case for trial on February 8, 2014. The vigilance court had ordered a probe into the officer’s wealth on a public interest petition filed by social activist P D Joseph in 2003.

Though the probe in the case was completed in 2009, trial was held up due to the delay in receiving sanction from the federal government to prosecute him. The delay occurred as Thachankary had submitted a representation directly to the ministry of home affairs against granting sanction to prosecute him. The ministry took three years to dispose of the representation.

The officer was suspended following the registration of the case by the vigilance but was reinstated in service due to the delay in the probe. Apart from this Thachankary is also facing two other cases-- one related to unauthorized visit to Qatar and another over smuggling of electronic equipment.

He was suspended again in 2011 for undertaking the visit to Qatar without the permission of the government.

The case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) following revelation that he had met some people with terror links during his visit to the Gulf country.

The government had recently initiated a move to promote Thachankary as additional-director general of police ( ADGP) despite the cases pending against him.

The move was dropped following criticism from several quarters. —