People who speak against corruption are bullied into silence, says suspended DGP Jacob Thomas

December 20, 2017 11:33 am | Updated 11:33 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Former Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau Director Jacob Thomas.

Former Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau Director Jacob Thomas.

Director General of Police Jacob Thomas, who was red-carded on Wednesday by the Kerala Government for his allegedly anti-administration remarks, said people who speak against corruption are bullied into silence worldwide.

 

Interacting with reporters here, Mr. Thomas said “this kind of things happen when you swim with the sharks, but the swimming will continue”.

Mr. Thomas, who is currently Director General of Institute of Management in Government, was alluding to his controversial tell-all service story, “Swimming with Sharks”, for which he had earned a censure from the government earlier this year.

Mr. Thomas said he was yet to get any formal order from the government. On December 9, he had attended a meeting to create awareness against corruption.

To a query whether the government had suspended him for stating at the meeting that the rule of law no more prevailed in Kerala, Mr. Thomas posed the counter question — did the people of the State think that the anti-corruption law was satisfactorily implemented in the State?

In the controversial December 9 meeting, Mr. Thomas had aired doubts about the post Ockhi response of the State. He said the coastal folk would have been better insulated against such natural disasters had corrupt officials not looted the ₹1,400 crore post-tsunami rehabilitation funds. Mr. Thomas had also said at the meeting that whistleblowers were in a state of fear in Kerala and they faced impervious walls.

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