Centre suspends IRS officer B Balamurugan for criticising Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Centre suspends IRS officer
B Balamurugan for criticising
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

The IRS officer Balamurgam had to pay a heavy price for writing to President Murmu and calling for the Minister to be sacked for the controversy over ED issuing summons to two Dalit farmers

IRS officer Balamurugan who accused Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman of turning the ED into a political instrument of the BJP

A suspension order from the
Union ministry of finance said that “disciplinary proceedings are contemplated” against Balamurugan who holds the rank of deputy commissioner, Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Chennai. The order, a copy of which HT has seen, did not cite any other reason. And the suspended IRS officer is set to retire on January 31.

Notedly, the suspended IRS officer had written to President Droupadi Murmu on January 2 calling for Sitharaman to be sacked. The two farmers aged 72 and 67 had accused a local BJP leader of trying to illegally grab their land.

The above incident shows how the Enforcement Directorate has become an extended arm of the BJP. In fact, the finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman, after taking over the charge, has successfully converted the Enforcement Directorate into BJP Policy Enforcement Directorate.

ED had issued the summons to the farmers last July which resurfaced on social media earlier this month triggering a controversy since their caste was mentioned in the summons and ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report), which is equivalent to a first information report (FIR).

On January 4,there were media reports for reporting that ED officials said that the case against farmer S Kannaiyan and S Krishnan was closed, as the predicate offence based on which the probe began was already. The federal agency had no intention of harassing the farmers.

Following the incident, when central government offices were closed for half a day for the Ram temple consecration in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya on January 22, he had written to Sitharaman and the Union revenue secretary that he wished to work.

News Edit K.V.Raman