Kakkanad: Former IT fellow to the Kerala Chief Minister, Arun Balachandran, who is under the scanner in the gold smuggling case, had used the 'Government of Kerala' board for his personal car.
After a Right to Information (RTI) activist T N Prathapan filed a complaint four months ago, the motor vehicles’ enforcement wing got the board removed. But no case was filed.
Prathapan said that he had complained as it was unlawful to put up a government board on a private vehicle.
The then enforcement RTO G Anandakrishnan said that he had asked for removal of the board to be removed the very next day after receiving the complaint on the official WhatsApp number.
Also, a motor vehicle inspector was sent to confirm that the board was removed.
Arun was removed as the Marketing and Operations Director at the IT Parks, an initiative of the IT Department after investigators of the gold smuggling case got to know about his links to the smuggling racket through phone records.
He had allegedly made enquiries for a flat for the accused in the gold smuggling case.
The Customs had seized 30kg gold from a diplomatic baggage in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. The IT department has come under a cloud over the gold smuggling scandal.
The second accused in the case, Swapna Suresh worked with the Space Park, an undertaking of the IT department. She was removed after her name cropped up in the case.
Senior IAS official M Sivasankar was also suspended over his alleged links to the accused in the case. He was removed from the key posts of IT Secretary and Principal Secretary to the CM.
