Thachankary, a man of controversies

Arjun RaghunathFirst Published : 10 Dec 2009 01:39:00 AM ISTLast Updated :

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: IG Tomin J.Thachankary, who has landed in a fresh controversy over his mission to probe Thadiyantavide Nazeer’s terror links, has been a man of controversy in the Kerala Police since his early years.


From smuggling of electronic equipment to amassment of excess wealth, controversies are haunting this 1984-batch IPS officer one after the other.

The present controversy over his credentials is just another `thorn’ in the cap of this police officer who is also facing a Vigilance inquiry.

Though Thachankary had some commendable achievements in his service, including the recent cracking of the Nigerian e-mail fraud and credit card rackets, those are being clouded by the scars left behind by him.

Thachankary hit the bad patch in 2002 after his gunman was held with costly electronic items at Nedumbassery airport. It was further revealed that Thachankary had made frequent foreign trips without taking permission from the government and had imported costly electronic goods. A Vigilance inquiry was subsequently ordered against him on charges of amassment of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Thachankary, who is believed to be having close links with CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, was also said to be a technical advisor at the time of the setting up of the Kairali TV channel.

Thachankary, who was not in the limelight for a couple of years, later swung into action following a raid against pirated CDs on the shops near Beemapally while he was the nodal-officer of the anti-piracy cell in 2004.

However, it had boomeranged in December 2006, when a police team led by IG Rishi Raj Singh, the then nodal officer of anti-piracy cell, raided the Riyan digital studio run by his wife Anita Thachankary in Kochi and recovered pirated CDs in large numbers. Rishi Raj Singh was stripped off the charges of the anti-piracy cell by the then DGP Raman Srivastava within hours after the raid. However, the immediate intervention by Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan saved his face.

Under a shadow

* Thachankary hit the bad patch in 2002 after his gunman was held with costly electronic items at Nedumbassery airport.

* A Vigilance inquiry was subsequently ordered against him on charges of amassment of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

* Thachankary, who is believed to be having close links with CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, was also said to be a technical advisor at the time of the setting up of the Kairali TV channel.

* In December 2006, a police team led by IG Rishi Raj Singh, the then nodal officer of anti-piracy cell, raided the Riyan digital studio run by Thachankary’s wife Anita in Kochi and recovered pirated CDs in large numbers.

* He was suspended from service in July 2007 after the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) filed first-informationreport against him.

* As per the FIR, Thachankary had amassed about Rs 90 lakh beyond his known sources of income.

* The Vigilance had raided his residential premises and office as well as that of his close relatives.

* While being reinstated in service earlier this year, the Chief Minister had specifically cautioned that he should not be given key postings.