A senior IAS officer in Kerala who is known as an anti-corruption crusader and has been transferred 20 times in the past 22 years has alleged that the central and state governments were trying to terminate his service now because of his fight against graft.

Raju Narayanaswamy, 51, told reporters in Kochi on Friday that the state government had recommended his dismissal to the Centre citing unexplained absence from work and lack of discipline and responsibility.

“I still haven’t received any official information on the government’s decision to sack me. But what I saw in the media is distressing,” he said, alluding to a report in a Malayalam daily.

According to the report, a high-level committee comprising of state and central officials and headed by Kerala chief secretary Tom Jose has taken the decision to terminate Narayanaswamy’s service and the state has recommended this to the Centre.

“It’s very sad that I have been given this kind of a reward for fighting corruption. I am facing you with a lot of pain,” Narayanaswamy said in Kochi.

Narayanaswamy has been without a post since being suspended in March from the post of chairman of the Coconut Development Board (CDB), where he claimed to have detected multiple corruption cases involving misappropriation of funds and suspended two officials. The CBD comes under the Union agriculture ministry.

While Narayanaswamy insisted that he did not receive any official information from the state government, he said he suspected some “serious moves” against him at a meeting of the high-level committee in Thiruvananthapuram on June 18.

The Kerala government refused to react to the allegations. Both finance minister Thomas Isaac and chief secretary Tom Jose parried questions on the IAS officer’s claims. A smiling Isaac told reporters “I don’t know”. Jose said: “No comments.”

A Kerala-cadre officer of the 1991 batch, Narayanaswamy had been appointed as the chairman of the CDB in August 2018. Consistent with his style of work, he unearthed alleged corruption involving the CDB’s Bangalore regional director, Hemachandra, and technical officer Simi Thomas. On the basis of Narayanaswamy’s findings, Hemachandra and Thomas were suspended last December and the CBI has filed a corruption case against them.

Hemachandra has been accused of misappropriating funds granted by the Union agriculture ministry to the CBD to help Dalit farmers.

“Eventually, I was transferred out on March 7, just seven months after I had taken charge. So I went to the CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal), where my case is pending,” Narayanaswamy told The Telegraph.

The officer said he could not rejoin work in his home cadre because his appeal was pending with the CAT. “The CAT had orally asked me not to return to my home cadre since it would make the case anfractuous. I can’t believe the Kerala government did not know such a rule existed,” he said.

“I don’t have a single blemish in my career record, not a single CBI case,” added Narayanaswamy, who is often compared to Ashok Khemka, the IAS officer known for his integrity.

“I even wrote twice (on March 25 and June 18) to the chief secretary, narrating everything,” Narayanaswamy said.

He, however, did not name or blame anyone. “I am not blaming anyone. It is this system that is working against officers like me,” he said.

“There are people who are afraid of me. They know I will unearth corruption and put many behind bars,” Narayanaswamy added.

Narayanaswamy had been one of the officers handpicked by then chief minister and CPM veteran V.S. Achuthanandan when the latter tried to clean up encroachments in the picturesque Idukki district in 2007. As the Idukki collector, Narayanaswamy cracked down on encroachments, including those involving the children of then public works minister T.U. Kuruvilla.

Narayanaswamy has served as the collector of five districts. He has had several run-ins with the governments of the day and influential industrialists for his strict action against corruption.

Narayanaswamy had earlier been made to go on forced leave as managing director of the state marketing federation after he refused to follow questionable diktats of the chairman, a senior politician. At several times in his career, Narayanaswamy has had to work under junior officers as perceived punishment for his crusade against corruption.