CAT orders atatus quo

KOCHI: Ernakulam Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to maintain status quo till May 18 on the transfer of two of its inspectors to Guwahati and Kolkota. The CAT passed the order while considering a petition filed by the two officials, whose names were mentioned in ASP Haridath’s suicide note, seeking to quash the transfer order.  The CAT also directed the CBI that petitioners- S Unnikrishnan Nair and K K Rajan, who were inspectors in the Thiruvananthapuram branch, may not be forced to join at new locations. They moved CAT alleging that the transfer order was issued as part of the superior officers’ plan to exonerate two top IPS officers- Vijay Sakhare and Muhammed Yasin from the Sampath custodial murder case. Under the cover of Haridath’s suicide note, the CBI top cops have transferred the duo, they said. “Haridath had been forced to undo whatever he had done earlier. It was because of the pressure exerted on him to save the two IPS officers that Haridath was forced to seek psychiatric treatment,” the petitioners said.They also submitted that the Kerala High Court had ordered that neither ASP Nandakumar Nair nor Chennai Joint Director Ashok Kumar should interfere with the probe. However, the officials were permitted to continue in the same position, they said.  The petitioners said that the higher officials in the CBI were responsible for Haridath’s death. The case diary, after both OP Gathotra and Peshin assumed charge of supervision, speaks volumes in this regard. “The suicide note was concocted to completely liquidate the investigation in Sampath custodial death case so that all the top ranking officers involved in the murder could go scot-free,” counsel for petitioners Pirappancode V S Sudheer said.