"Amit Shah, you can arrest me. But cannot make me silent"

Thiruvananthapuram: Kannan Gopinathan, former IAS officer who quit the coveted service protesting against the denial of "fundamental rights" to lakhs of people in Jammu and Kashmir for weeks after the state lost its special status, has taken to Twitter to respond to the move of Gujarat police who filed FIR against him for misinterpreting government orders.

The 34-year old former bureaucrat said: “Nice try Amit Shah. You can arrest. But you won’t silence. No one is afraid of you here.”

The central government had asked Kannan Gopinathan to rejoin the service. However, Gopinathan, a 2012 batch IAS officer responded that the directive asking him to return to service was not with good intent.

"Asking me to return to service is not one with a good intent and is meant to harass me. I see some sort of pettiness and vengeance. If they want me to work for Covid-19, I am already doing it and am working with NGOs in Maharashtra. For doing Covid-19 work, I don't need the tag of IAS. If they say I should do this work in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, I am willing, but will not return to service and I have written back," said Gopinathan to the media.

He also pointed out that though he resigned in August last year, he is yet to get his salary for the days he worked in August.

His work during the 2018 floods in Kerala was widely acclaimed, as many came to know he was an IAS officer only much later.