New Delhi
Police have registered a case against Kannan Gopinathan, who resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) last August, for not joining duty as directed by the government amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Kannan Gopinathan, who hails from the Indian state of Kerala, had quit the service over denial of freedom to the people of occupied Kashmir.
An FIR, under the Epidemic Diseases Act and Disaster Management Act was registered against him on April 21 at Moti Daman police station in the Union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, police said. “He is also facing a charge under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for refusing to obey a government order,” said police inspector Liladhar Makwana.
On April 9, the authorities had sent a communication to Gopinathan, asking him to join duty on the ground that his resignation had not been accepted yet.
Gopinathan termed the letter as an act of harassment and refused to join the duty, saying that he was ready to offer his services amid the COVID-19 crisis as a common citizen.
He had submitted his resignation to the Indian Home Ministry weeks after the scrapping of occupied Kashmir’s special status and imposition of lockdown in the territory on August 05, last year, by the Modi government.—KMS
