Thiruvananthapuram: The government has taken stringent action against erring IAS officers N. Prashanth and K. Gopalakrishnan, but this is not the final step in the matter, said Industries and Law Minister P. Rajeev. Speaking to reporters about the suspension of the officers, the minister said that steps have been initiated against them in accordance with established procedures. "The officers are free to approach the Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal will only examine whether the procedures initiated against the officers are in line with the rules and regulations," Rajeev explained.

"However, we cannot say that the matter is resolved here. What happens next will depend on the procedures followed by the government. As of now, the government has taken strong action based on civil service rules following a preliminary investigation," the minister added.

The government had earlier suspended N. Prashanth, Special Secretary in the Agriculture Department, and K. Gopalakrishnan, Director in the Industries Department. Prashanth was suspended for repeatedly maligning Additional Chief Secretary Dr. A. Jayathilak on social media, while Gopalakrishnan was suspended for creating a WhatsApp group based on religious identity.

Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan had submitted a report on the conduct of these two IAS officers to the Chief Minister on Sunday, stating that their actions had brought shame to the government and tainted its image.

Earlier, Jayathilak had submitted a report alleging that files related to the 'Unnathi' project were missing and that Prashanth had marked fake attendance when he was not working. Upon the release of this report, Prashanth began maligning Jayathilak on social media and also targeted Mathrubhumi, the newspaper that first published the details of the report.

In the case of the controversial WhatsApp group, the government did not accept Gopalakrishnan’s explanation that his phone had been hacked. During the police investigation, it was found that neither his phone nor his WhatsApp account had been hacked. The government took the matter seriously, as a senior IAS officer in the state had created a WhatsApp group based on religious identity. Following media reports, Gopalakrishnan claimed that his phone had been hacked and that 11 such groups had been created after the hack.