Kottayam vigilance court hands ex-DGP Thachankary four years in DA case

A special vigilance court in Kottayam on Thursday sentenced former Director General of Police Tomin J Thachankary to four years of rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case, bringing a long-running prosecution against the retired IPS officer to its first conviction.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had alleged that Thachankary accumulated wealth far beyond his known sources of income between 2003 and 2007. A First Information Report registered in 2007 put the excess at as much as 135 per cent. The officer retired in 2023.

Vigilance court prosecutor K K Sreekanth said that in addition to the prison term, the former DGP must pay a fine of Rs 30 lakh. Because the sentence exceeds three years, he will have to be lodged in prison, and the trial court cannot grant him bail, the prosecutor said.

The case has moved slowly for years. A charge sheet was filed in 2013, but the trial remained pending until it resumed following a directive from the Kerala High Court last year. In August 2025, a division bench of the High Court directed the special court to expedite the framing of charges based on the final report already filed by the Vigilance wing.

The High Court had earlier voiced concern over the prolonged investigation and the delays, attributing part of the delay to the accused's actions. It also criticised the state for enabling such delays, saying they undermine public confidence in the justice system, and noted that no fresh material had been placed before the government to justify a further investigation.

The then CPI(M)-led state government had granted sanction in January 2021 for further investigation against Thachankary and assigned the probe to another special investigation unit. Anti-corruption campaigner Bobby Kuruvila challenged that order, arguing that the government could not have ordered a further investigation once criminal proceedings had reached the stage where the final report was already before the special court.

Thachankary, a 1987-batch Keralam-cadre officer, retired in 2023 as a DGP-rank officer and director general of investigation at the State Human Rights Commission, closing a 36-year career in the police. Over two decades in the public eye, he held several key posts but also faced allegations ranging from custodial torture to illegal foreign trips and disproportionate assets.

A tech-savvy officer, he was credited with solving several cybercrimes during his tenure as Inspector General. He was also known for pursuits outside policing: in the early 1990s he drew attention as a composer, scoring music for popular films and devotional songs. In the early 2000s he renovated the studio of the CPI(M)-controlled Kairali TV, a development that fuelled speculation about his ties to the party.

The arrest of his gunman at Kochi airport in 2002 on charges of smuggling electronic equipment marked another low. A Vigilance probe eventually alleged that the gunman had carried in the equipment illegally with his superior's knowledge, and investigators also alleged that the IPS officer had flown abroad 72 times between 1996 and 2001. The probe did not reach its logical end, prompting allegations of political pressure.

His career also saw allegations of custodial torture. As an ASP in Alappuzha in 1991, he faced charges of brutal custodial torture after a 36-year-old man, who had reported the suicide of a woman neighbour, alleged he was illegally detained and tortured for a week.

In 2004, he was appointed to head a special unit set up to end the piracy menace crippling the film industry, and as chief of the anti-piracy cell he appeared in television promos against pirated CDs. Two years later, a fellow IPS officer who had succeeded him in that role raided Riyan Studio in Kochi, launched by his wife Anita.

In July 2007, Thachankary was suspended over the disproportionate assets allegations. The suspension was revoked two years later and he was posted as Inspector General of the North Kerala zone, despite reservations expressed by then chief minister V S Achuthanandan. While still under suspension, his mother had reportedly approached CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat. In 2009, after the revocation, he was sent to question suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Tadiyantavide Nasir as IG of North Kerala, an assignment during a phase of infighting within the CPI(M) that triggered a row, with Achuthanandan also questioning the decision to depute him.