Former Karnataka law minister Suresh Kumar on Monday opined that Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer M N Vijaykumar, who was dismissed days before he was due to retire, was sacked due to his 'outspokenness'.
"I think M N Vijaykumar's attitude was not tolerated by the official officer lobby in our state. He behaved in a rather unusual way: he sought information through RTI applications and was outspoken; he came down heavily on chief secretaries as well," Suresh Kumar told the media.
"But retiring him four days before his actual retirement is a very harsh punishment. And M N Vijaykumar was never known to be a corrupt officer. However, I feel that the government should have allowed him to retire in his natural course," he added.
The former state minister also called for leaders across the political spectrum to come out in support of Vijaykumar.
"We should have come in support of him, but we thought the matter was closed. However, he was being transferred...I think he is the highest transferred officer in the state. The need of the hour is for us to support such officers, cutting across party lines. Honest officers must not be made to suffer as it will send the wrong message to all other officers," he said.
Vijayakumar was relieved from service with effect from April 27, with the direction that the retirement benefits admissible to him shall be two-third of the admissible amount of pension prescribed in the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.
In an interview to ANI, the former officer said that his removal was a message for other honest officers to toe the line of the majority corrupt officers.