Thiruvananthapuram, May 10 : Kerala Inspector General of Police P. Vijayan, who was suspended from service in May 2023 and reinstated after six months, was finally promoted to the rank of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) on Friday.

While he was reinstated later, his promotion, which was due, was kept in abeyance by the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

The IPS officer first felt the heat, when on April 26, 2023, he was first removed from the key post of head of the Anti-Terror Squad and also the chief of the Kerala Books and Publications Society, and subsequently, suspended.

At that time, no one had a clue of what had happened, but, it was later known that the charge against him was that he allegedly leaked crucial information to the media when Delhi resident Shahrukh Saifi, the accused in the Kozhikode train fire case, was brought from Maharashtra to Kerala in April last year.

The order of promotion was finally issued on Friday and he has been posted as the Director of the Kerala Police Academy.

Vijayan, who worked as a labourer when he was a student, cracked the Civil Service examination and through his hard work, became a hugely popular police official, where his efforts even won the accolades of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The senior police official was listed as one of the 100 people to take part in the 100th episode of Modi's flagship programme, "Mann Ki Baat", but the state government failed to give him permission to participate.

/IANS