Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer B Balamurugan was suspended on January 29, just two days before his scheduled retirement, with disciplinary proceedings also initiated against him, according to an official notice.
The notice, however, does not mention any reason for Balamurgan’s suspension.
Balamurugan had been in the news a few weeks ago for criticising Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a letter to President Droupadi Murmu and demanding her dismissal for “reducing” the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into “BJP policy Enforcement Directorate.”
His letter came after the ED sent a summons to two Dalit farmers, Kannaiyan and Krishnan, in Tamil Nadu in July last year.
The farmers, both brothers and in their 70s, living in Attur of Salem district, own 6.5 acres of agricultural land in their village. While it remains unclear as to why the ED summoned the brothers, the reference to them as ‘Hindu Pallars’ triggered outrage.
It was also alleged that the central agency was targeting the farmers, who subsist on a Rs 1,000 monthly pension.
They were engaged in a land dispute case with Gunashekar, BJP’s Salem East district secretary, whom the farmers have accused of illegally trying to grab their land. Balamurgan’s wife Dalit Pravina is the lawyer representing the two farmers.
While the ED said that they would close the case against the farmers on January 4, it is yet to do so.
Balamurugan, who was holding the post of Deputy Commissioner of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Chennai, wrote to the President regarding the matter, accusing the ED of becoming an extended arm of the BJP.
He had said that Sitharaman had successfully converted the ED into a ‘BJP policy ED’. The officer also demanded the dismissal of Sitharaman, whom he referred to as 'unfit to be the Finance Minister of India’, to render justice to the poor Dalit farmers.
The controversy gains significance in the wake of a recent conflict between the Tamil Nadu government and the ED.
This dispute arose when the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) arrested an ED officer for accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from a government doctor. The arrest and subsequent DVAC raid on the ED's sub-zonal office in Madurai led to a series of complaints from both parties.