My Facebook post

About my Facebook post

My Facebook is accessible only to my friends. I have never made it public. When many friends/relatives asked me about a press report which appeared in the media on 27th December 2015 that Vigilance Court Thrissur had ordered a case to be registered against me, I wrote a post about it on my private facebook page so that I need not repeat the story to each and everyone.
How can telling my friends my woes create so much controversy and news value?

I am the target of continued harassment from one particular person (my enemy No.1) of the same rank ever since I entered the service. Recently he was devising new ways to torture me, the motive for which is still unclear. May be he was jealous that I got the prestigious Chevening Award in UK? When I took study leave to undertake UK Government's Chevening Fellowship for 3 months from September to December 2015, he manipulated to get into the post I vacated. He was thrown out of another department due to some controversy and was in need of face-saving. He has been continuously searching for ways to tarnish my three decades of unblemished career record through devious means, but in Transport Department he could not find any mistakes I did. Fearing that I may get back as Transport Commissioner on my  return from UK, he created a false story that got aired in Asianet channel for a full day which said that I misused the official vehicle and telephone of TC causing a loss of Rs 24,000. Once Asianet knew that the story was false, they removed that news immediately from the channel, but for a few hours my enemy succeeded in spreading false rumour that I, who at that time was in London, misused his office facilities. On my return, he refused to budge from the post of TC, so after 3 weeks of waiting for posting, I got posted in State Crime Records Bureau as ADGP on 23.12.2015. I am happy and relaxed now. Seeing that I am happy, he got upset and started to look for other ways to harass me.He does that quite often.

There were umpteen instances in the past of his harassment. Three years back when he was placed under suspension for holding two passports and taking trips abroad without sanction from competent authority, he lashed out against me publicly saying that Sreelekha also took trips abroad and hence she too also be suspended! He fabricated a GO showing that I caused Rs 84,000 to Government and gave it to the media who happily showed in the channels it for a day.  I searched for this GO and could not find it either in any office or at Secretariat. Then I found that he fabricated this GO just to damage my reputation.  I complained against him then and even obtained Government sanction to file a damages suit against him.  But then he came to me and apologised, touching my feet and crying. He has that habit of publicly harassing me and then apologising privately.  He vouched time and again that he was Satan and I was an Angel and he would never torment me again! I forgave him then too, since I believe that having bad feelings for others is not good for me.

But he gets some mean pleasure by torturing me. So, in December 2015  he found an opportunity to influence a bus owner to give a false complaint against me at the Thrissur Vigilance Court on 30.12.2015 that an Educational Institution has bought some buses which were used as stage carriages to evade tax and a petition given to Transport Minister in 2013 was scuttled by me since I accepted bribe from the College and the earlier bus owner. I was accused number 3 in the petition. JRTO Chalakkudy was accused 4. Accused one was previous bus owner Joy Antony and Accused 2 was Principal of College, Sajeev Vattoli. Complainant's name was P. P. Johnson. The Vigilance Court was made to believe that there was a Special Branch Report which prove the allegations, so the court called for it the next day- ie 31.12.2015. There was no SB report on that date. But 15 days later, on 15.01.2016, DySP Special Branch Thrissur gives a vague report to ADG Intelligence that in Thrissur District, Educational Institutions evade vehicle taxes which require enquiry by Vigilance Department. On 22nd January, he gave another vague report to the court that he gave a report to ADG Intelligence for vigilance enquiry. The court promptly ordered a case to be registered against all the accused by Vigilance!

I don't know this complainant Johnson. He never came with any complaint to me. When he complained first in February 2013, Sri. Rishiraj Singh was the TC. The petition was forwarded by Minister's office and Vigilance in June 2013 and the then TC enquired about it through his JRTO Chalakkudy. Finding the allegations unsubstantiated, he informed this to complainant Johnson in July 2013 and even sent report to Minister Transport. One year later, in June 2014, I took charge as TC. I handed over charge of TC in September 2015 to the Transport Secretary Sri Gopala Menon. I was in Transport Department for only 14 months.
I was naturally puzzled why a person should target me with this false complaint. As suspected, I found out that the present TC was behind this. I was naturally distressed. During one of the sleepless nights post this incident, I wrote a post about this on my facebook page. It got leaked to Manorama in a few hours!

Of course the post carried his name, which everyone knows by now. My post, meant only for my friends & relatives got leaked to the media by one of my friends who is unfortunately friend of you-know-who or he might have wriggled into my FB in a false name! So from 30th January onward, Manorama channel & Kairali channel started celebrating the news. The newspapers followed suit. Now the news is in the National Media. I did not talk to anybody in the press, because I had filed an appeal at the High Court against the orders of the Vigilance Court & I am awaiting orders from the High Court. I am positive of a favourable outcome, but the damage he intended had been already done.
My FB post is not public. I never intended it to be public. Yet it became a big news and one Enemy No.1 threatened to file damages case against me.
To answer one query from some stranger as to why it took 29 years for me respond and whether I intend to join politics now that elections are round the corner- first, I have responded only when I was driven to the corner. And at a heavy cost too. Because he is venomous and spits untruths.And I don't have the mental strength to be a politician. So, sorry. I will retire as DGP and then engage my time fruitfully in writing.
My innocence will be proven soon. I wish to thank all my well wishers- known and unknown who supported and prayed for me.

PS- The High Court quashed the orders of Vigilance Court, fully vindicating me. Further, in the orders of the Hon'ble High Court, it was mentioned that such vexatious petitioners should be legally dealt with. So I filed a damages suit against this Johnson.

Enemy is least amused, so his twisted brain has planned another attack. I have written about it in "Mr- Creeps." 

Now you decide. Is he crazy or does he have some mental problem? Is he fit to occupy this post which he holds now? 

The Chevening Experience

The Chevening Experience- Part 1

It was one of the great days in office. A colleague walked in with a request.

"I want a reference from you for applying for the Chevening Fellowship," he said.

"What is Chevening Fellowship?" I was puzzled. I haven't heard of it.

"Oh, it is a UK Government's award for Indians in London. My friend attended it two yeas back. If you search for it in internet, you will know the details. This particular one I am applying for is Chevening-Gurukul Fellowship." He answered.

I promptly google searched these words and found out that every year British Government calls for applications from Indians to attend a 12 week fellowship course in Europe, which is fully funded by the Government of UK. I found that any one can apply and there is no upper age limit! 

"Oh, this means I too can apply!" I exclaimed. "Yes, madam," my colleague answered.

The last date of application was just a week away and  I had to fill in plenty of details. It had a lot of columns and I had to fill up the entire career track records as well as my skills and achievements. But I applied nevertheless. I was a bit careless and made some mistakes since I was multitasking and in the midst of several other deadlines. Still, I was hopeful of getting selected although thousands apply every year only 12 to 15 persons get selected. Who else is more suited than me, was what I kept on thinking. 

I found out that my IPS batch-mate and roommate had attended this fellowship last year, but she never told me! Still I called her to find out how good this fellowship was.

"Oh... you don't study anything more than you already know, but the experience of spending three months in UK was great for me."

Days and weeks passed by without any information from the Chevening Secretariat. Interview for the selected candidates were supposed to be held by May. May came and went, still no news. I thought I did not get selected. 

Then, in the first week of June I received a call.

"This is from the British High Commission, New Delhi. I just want to check up whether you are coming for the interview scheduled on 7th. I did not get any reply from you, hence this call."

"I did not get any communication!" I complained. 

"We sent several mails to you, there is no response. Please check your spam mailbox too since some of our bulk mails to there. But we have sent mails to the email address you provided in the application." I was informed. 

7th was just two days away. How to go to New Delhi from Kerala at such a short notice? But I didn't want to miss the interview. "I'll be there by 12 noon on 7th." I confirmed.

On checking up my application again, I found I made a mistake in typing my email address. One letter was short! I sent mail to Chevening Secretariat apologizing the mistake and gave my correct email address. The next day, I got 16 mails with an apology for sending them to the wrong email address!

I was lucky. While I was racking my brains about going to Delhi and the expenses I had to incur for the trip, a message came from the Central Ministry that there is a meeting on 7th in New Delhi about accident statistics and an officer from Kerala should be deputed! 

I was fated to get this fellowship!

The trip to Delhi, meeting at MORTH and Interview at British Consulate went like clockwork. More than asking me any questions, the 3 member Interview Board was telling me about the fellowship, what all I should prepare for the travel and how the weather will be etc!I was sure by then that I got selected for the fellowship. I owe thanks to the two dignitaries who gave glowing references about me. Mr. P. K. H. Tharakan who was DGP Kerala and Chief of R&AW under whom I have worked for a few years and Dr. Sheena Shukkoor, Pro- Vice Chancellor of MG University who is my friend since the last several years.
Being an award by the British Government, I had to proceed to London on leave. So, I applied for three month's Earned leave. I got permission from MHA, MEA and State Government. Visa and tickets were provided by the Foreign Commonwealth Office in London. By that time, a whats-app group was formed by the selected fellows, 15 of us and we were in contact with each other through the social media. I was the only one selected from Kerala and the first IPS officer to be given this award in the State. Of the 15, two were Tamilians settled in Delhi, one was from Maharashtra, one from AP  and the other 10 were from Delhi.
Early morning on 10th September 2015 I started from Trivandrum and reached Heathrow airport in London in the evening. My brother, who is a doctor in Southampton which is more than 2 hour drive from London came to pick me up. He dropped me at Moonraker Point an apartment for students near Waterloo Station. I had visited UK as part of my Mid-career training programme (MCTP-IV) in 2012 earlier. My family had joined me then for a few days after my course. But this time, it was for three months.
I loved my apartment. It was small with attached tiny bathroom. The room had a double bed, a wardrobe shelf, a long L shaped table and a chair. There was storage space under the bed and a full size mirror for dressing. Each apartment had four such en-suite rooms and a common kitchen. The kitchen was fully furnished with a table, four chairs and all utensils. The huge fridge was big enough to store all our food, there were burners, oven and microwave. All the cutlery were four in number and there were plenty of utensils. I was thinking of eating packed food while in London, but the sight of the full-fledged kitchen changed my mind.
My brother took me for shopping at Sainsbury and purchased all I immediately needed. After he left, I met the other person who was allotted room in the apartment, Anish Garg who was previously a Judge, but now legal adviser in Dupont. Then came Sapna Poti, who is a highly qualified lady with a PhD from IIT, Chennai and working at NSDC. The fourth person was Dr. Shuchin Bajaj who runs a number of hospitals around Delhi. He later shifted his apartment and in his place came Neha Pahuja, a climate researcher working in Teri. Soon I found that I was the oldest in the group. But I decided to enjoy to the maximum and learn a lot in the process.
Our programme schedule showed that though the main classes will be at King's College at Strand in London, which is one of the oldest colleges in UK, we will be taken to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Geneva and Paris as part of the Fellowship studies!
King's College was housed in Somerset House on the banks of River Thames. It was a beautiful, imposing building with many wings and our class was in a room at Dickson-Poon School of Law building which overlooked the court yard and the clock tower of Somerset House. From Moonraker Point to Kings College, it was a 30 minutes walk and we had to cross Thames at Waterloo Bridge. Beautiful walk it was!
Since all the fellows had to do individual project work, a guide was allotted to me- Professor Benjamin Bowling. He was a sweet person who taught me a lot during those days.
And London was beautiful. The weather during that month was simply lovely. Sapna became a close friend in a few days and we went everywhere together. Unfortunately the first day itself, I got fever and a bad cold, probably due to weather change. A person sitting next to me in the flight was sneezing, may be I inhaled the germs in the air.
More later.

 With Sapna on the way to Kings College- South Bank.

 Inside our classroom