India
oi-Gaurav Sharma
A case of alleged irregularities in Kerala’s Public Works Department that has been lingering since almost two decades was reopened on Tuesday with the order for a fresh Vigilance inquiry into the matter involving chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Home minister Ramesh Chennithala has directed the state’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to look into alleged irregularities in the tenure of Kumar as PWD secretary and ascertain whether the earlier probe into the case was wrongly withdrawn.
Kerala’s Home Minister ordered a fresh Vigilance inquiry into alleged 2006 PWD irregularities involving CEC Gyanesh Kumar, focusing on a deceased engineer’s suicide note and the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of an earlier probe.
The matter pertains to the suicide of a Malaysian civil engineer Lee See Been in 2006 and the case had been lying dormant till now. Been belonged to PATI-BEL, an Indo-Malaysian joint venture firm that has been working on the upgradation of the 240-km MC Road under the Kerala State Transport Project.
It appears that the suicide note of Been, who was working in Kerala at that time, mentioned the name of Gyanesh Kumar who was serving as Kerala PWD secretary then. Malayankeezhu Venugopal, a Congress leader who has filed a complaint seeking fresh investigation in the matter, feels that the circumstances surrounding the original inquiry require a fresh look.
It is learnt that a Vigilance probe had been initiated in this connection following the suicide of Been that had taken place while he was working in Kerala, but the proceedings were stayed. Kumar had then gone on deputation to the Defence Ministry.
The fresh complaint alleged that the earlier inquiry was intentionally derailed and sought a detailed probe in to charges of allotment of public works contracts during Kumar’s tenure as PWD secretary.
Chennithala said the government could not ignore allegations of cognisable offences and it was his responsibility as the home minister to see such complaints were probed by the relevant agencies.
The minister however clarified that the fresh probe was not necessitated by political vendetta. The fresh probe comes in the backdrop of a political row between the Kerala government, the opposition parties and various youth organisations over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Chennithala has criticised Kumar for the SIR exercise but said the 2006 case should be looked in to on its merits. The VACB will now go into the allegations and circumstances surrounding the earlier probe and further action will be taken based on their findings.
