Aryan Grover
After adversarial remarks were raised against him by the state Lokayukta for abusing his post, Kerala leader KT Jaleel decided to resign from his position of a public servant and stated that he has been a victim of “unjustified media harassment” for the two preceding years.
The resignation the Chief Minister was made earlier during the day, before the statement was made. The resignation was forwarded to the governor and subsequently accepted.
This comes after a division bench of the Lokayukta submitted a report against Jaleel to the Chief Minister which affirmed the allegations of abuse of power, favouritism, and nepotism against him.
In a Facebook post, Jaleel addressed the allegations after his resignation, stating, “Those who were vying for my blood can relax for a while as I am happy to inform you that the resignation letter has been handed over to the Chief Minister. I am a public servant who has been the victim of unjustified media harassment for the last two years.”
Jaleel clarified his stance stating that he was targeted by the media not for stealing, engaging in corruption, causing loss to the state exchequer, or any other malpractices of this sort.
He went on to target the the Muslim League (IUML) leadership, and voiced that he was not attacked by the media over allegations of embezzlement of Tsunami-Gujarat-Katwa-flood funds or pocketing crores of rupees that had been set aside for the construction of the Palarivottam bridge.
Maintaining that he has not done anything, Jaleel said that he held on against the mounting pressure of the right wing and the media.
He added that it was the “greatest honour” of his public life that three central investigation agencies- the Customs department, the NIA, and the ED- conducted a thorough investigation and yet, came up short in finding anything wrong on his part. The investigations were held in connection to a gold smuggling case.
In his concluding remark, he stated, “Currently the matter is under the consideration of the High Court and I am not waiting for the verdict but resigning from the post on moral grounds.”