CAT refuses to stay suspension of ADGP Ajith Kumar

Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam, on Tuesday refused to grant an interim stay of the suspension order served on ADGP M R Ajith Kumar by the government on July 24. The two-judge bench of the CAT posted the next hearing for August 20.

Consequently, Ajith Kumar will be bypassed for promotion to the DGP cadre. He was next in line to be promoted to the highest IPS cadre with Fire and Rescue Director General Nitin Agarwal retiring from service on July 30.

"After hearing learned counsels on both sides, we are not inclined to grant any interim order," Justice K Haripal said in the order. The government argued that Ajith Kumar was unfit to become DGP, citing his unlawful intervention to favour the accused in a case related to police brutality on KSU and Youth Congress workers during the Nava Kerala Yatra on December 15, 2023.

Ajith Kumar, on the other hand, argued that his suspension was illegal. He said the suspension order was invalid as it was issued by the Chief Secretary instead of the Chief Minister in his capacity as the head of the General Administration Department.

He refuted the evidence that the Special Investigation Team had collected against him, and which formed the basis of the government's suspension order. Ajith Kumar also called into question the legal impropriety of the SIT investigation against him saying it was a Superintendent of Police, an officer lower in grade to the ADGP, who led the investigation against him.

The government argued that as ADGP (Law and Order), Ajith Kumar had exerted pressure on subordinate police officers to cite insufficient evidence and deliberately weaken their investigation into the assault on KSU and Youth Congress leaders during the Nava Kerala Yatra on December 15, 2023.

The visuals of former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's gunman and escort officers jumping out of their vehicles and clobbering KSU and Youth Congress leaders A D Thomas (who is now Alappuzha MLA) and Ajay Juel Kuriakose, who were waving black flags and shouting slogans as the Nava Kerala bus with the Chief Minister was passing through Alappuzha town, had gone viral.

Yet, the investigating officers appointed by the LDF government said there was insufficient evidence. The SIT report has now concluded that this was done at the orders of the then law and order ADGP.