Follow TNM's WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
A Kerala Vigilance Court on Thursday, September 17, sentenced former Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Tomin J Thachankary to four years of rigorous imprisonment in a long-running disproportionate assets case. The Special Court in Kottayam also imposed a fine of Rs 30.84 lakh on him.
The case was registered in 2007, after Thachankary was promoted as a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police. The VACB filed the chargesheet in 2013, by which time he had been promoted to Additional Director General of Police (ADGP).
The allegations are that Thachankary accumulated assets worth Rs 64.7 lakh between January 2003 and July 2007. According to a LiveLaw report, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) found that the assets he acquired during this period were between 135% and 138% disproportionate to his known sources of official income.
Thachankary had maintained that the assets under scrutiny were acquired through family partition, inheritance and gifts. He sought discharge from the case on those grounds, but the Vigilance Court rejected his plea in May 2020, holding that there was prima facie material to proceed with the trial. In January 2021, the Kerala government sanctioned a further investigation by a separate special unit of the VACB following a representation from Thachankary.
Anti-corruption activist Bobby Kuruvila subsequently approached the Kerala High Court, alleging that the government's decision was intended to delay the trial. In August 2025, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court set aside the government's order and directed that the trial be completed within a time-bound period.
Thachankary, a 1987-batch IPS officer of the Kerala cadre, retired in 2023 as DGP (Investigation) of the Kerala State Human Rights Commission.
During his career, he served in several prominent positions, including Managing Director of Kerala Marketfed and Consumerfed, Chairman and Managing Director of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), CMD of the Kerala Books and Publications Society, and Chief of the Kerala Fire and Rescue Services.