Suspended IAS officer Mohsin announces to move to court against EC

Mumbai: Suspended IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin said he had not violated any rules and was unaware of the charges against him. Mohsin who was suspended by the Election Commission on April 16 for checking the chopper of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, “I acted strictly as per the letter and spirit of the ECI guidelines. I have not violated any rules and I have not done anything wrong in this matter. This is why I asked for a copy of the report against me, but they have so far not shared this. I am fighting this case in the dark,” quoted Asian Age.

Saying that he was not at the spot when the incident happened and was not aware of what happened at the helipad, Mohsin claimed he had only read media reports, which he can neither confirm nor deny.

Narrating the events of the day, Mohsin said he had visited the helipad where the chopper of the Prime Minister was parked. As per his duty as an observer, he advised the team and left the place. Then he went to the venue of the function and sat there for five minutes in the police control room. There he was joined by the collector. He said, when he was sitting in the DC’s office, he got a call from the Deputy Chief Election Commissioner asking if he had ordered for frisking to be carried out, which Mohsin denied. All of a sudden he was suspended at around 11.30 pm.

Announcing that he would fight in the court of law, Mohsin said “I am a career bureaucrat with 22 years of service. I don’t belong to any party. I go by rules.”

Though the Election Commission revoked his suspension on Thursday, it recommended the state government to carry out disciplinary action against Mohsin.

Mohsin is an officer of the 1996 Karnataka cadre. He was serving as general observer for the Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha, where PM Modi addressed a rally on April 17.