THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Suspended IAS officer N Prasanth has sought an explanation from the Chief Secretary who issued a charge memo to him for disciplinary infraction. Prasanth sent the letter seeking clarification on seven matters. Prashant's position is that he will reply to the memo only if he gets a reply.

N Prasanth was suspended for defaming Additional Chief Secretary Jayathilak and Director Industries Department K Gopalakrishnan through Facebook. Immediately after, as part of the departmental investigation, Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan gave a charge memo to Prasanth on the 16th of last month.

Prasanth's questions

1. Why did the government not give me the opportunity to provide an explanation before issuing the suspension order?
2. Jayathilak and Gopalakrishnan have not filed any complaints against my Facebook posts. Then what is the logic behind the government issuing the memo on its own?
3. Who collected the screenshots of my Facebook posts that were included with the charge memo?
4. From which government official’s account was this collected?
5. Which official was assigned this task?
6. Name the social media account from which my posts were collected. Why did the government include screenshots shared by a private party in the charge memo?
7. Did the government examine the social media pages under the IT Act and verify that they were not fake?