Former Director-General of Police Jacob Thomas got a jolt on Thursday as it appeared that Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan government is in no mood to relent on him, challenging in the Supreme Court the relief that he got from the state High Court which quashed a Vigilance FIR against him in an alleged corruption case.
Thomas was once regarded as the blue-eyed boy of Chief Minister Vijayan and was given the plum post of Director, Vigilance on the same day that Vijayan assumed office in his first stint as Chief Minister in May 2016.
But after a while, relations between the two soured and Jacob was later suspended for violating service rules.
Then came a Vigilance case that was registered against him by his own department stating that Jacob had violated rules and regulations in the purchase of a dredger when he was heading the Ports Department from 2009-to 14.
Though he was reinstated later, he eventually retired from a non-policing job in May 2020, serving as the Managing Director of near defunct state-run Metal Industries Ltd, Shoranur.
Thomas then approached the court against the FIR regarding the dredger purchase and got the relief.
He had joined the BJP in February last year and contested the Assembly elections in April 2021 from the Irinjalakuda, but finished third.
