Two days before his retirement, the Union Finance Ministry suspended Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer B Balamurugan from Tamil Nadu who had demanded the dismissal of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over a case of Enforcement Directorate’s summons to two Dalit farmers last July, reports The Indian Express.
The suspension order issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and dated January 29, didn’t cite any reason for his suspension, and added that disciplinary proceedings are being contemplated against the official.
The order also said that he should not leave the headquarters without obtaining prior permission from the competent authority.
Balamurugan was set to retire on January 31.
On January 2, Balamurugan, who served as Deputy Commissioner of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Chennai, had written to President Droupadi Murmu calling for Sitharaman to be sacked for “converting the ED into an extended arm of the BJP”. He referred to the summons issued by the ED to two Dalit farmers in Salem district of Tamil Nadu over a money laundering case in July 2023.
The two farmers, Kannaiyan, 72, and Krishnan, 66, had accused G Gunashekhar, a senior BJP leader of Salem’s East wing, of trying to grab their land illegally.
“The above incident shows how the Enforcement Directorate has become an extended arm of the BJP,” Balamurugan had said in his letter, adding, “In fact, the finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman, after taking over the charge, has successfully converted the Enforcement Directorate into BJP Policy Enforcement Directorate.”
Balamurugan’s wife, Dalit G Pravina, was the lawyer of the farmers in the case, which was later closed. The lawyer had said that the two farmer brothers had merely Rs 450 in their bank account and they owned just 6.5 acres of land.