IAS officer lashes out at Kempaiah appointment

BANGALORE: The state government’s decision to appoint retired IPS officer Kempaiah as adviser to the home minister does not seem to have gone well with all in the bureaucracy. An IAS officer has written to home secretary S K Pattanayak, warning him of legal action if he fails to make public ‘criminal acts’ of the retired IPS officer and initiate action against him.
Arguing that Kempaiah, “who does not have a clean record”, should not continue as adviser, M N Vijaykumar, officer on special duty, principal secretary to the department of personnel and administrative reforms (department of enquiry manual), has said he will initiate legal action against Pattanayak under anti-corruption laws and various criminal laws.
Vijaykumar has said that home department officials are hiding facts about Kempaiah from home minister K J George despite his having sought the same. Vijaykumar, however, does not specify the exact allegation he is making against Kempaiah or provide evidence for anything.
He points out that there’s more than one judgment against Kempaiah pertaining to corruption, including from the Supreme Court. Kempaiah holds the rank of a minister of state and is entitled to all the benefits the rank comes with (see box).
Vijaykumar’s letter, a copy of which is with TOI, reads: “If the home minister is not allowing you to take action to remove Kempaiah, I would again initiate action against you if you fail to blow the whistle. In either case you would be making the home minister face serious criminal proceedings. As such, it is important for you to convince the minister the implication of facts suppressed by you to make Kempaiah the adviser.”
Vijaykumar has written a series of letters to chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee and Pattanayak since August 1 making a case against Kempaiah, but there has not been any positive response.