Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala IPS officer M R Ajith Kumar, who currently serves as the Excise Commissioner, met with former MLA P V Anvar at a friend's house in Pattom as per the directives of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). The state government ordered a probe against Ajith Kumar in the wake of allegations by former MLA P V Anvar. In his statement to the Special Investigation Unit-1, Thiruvananthapuram, Ajith Kumar said that the CMO asked him to meet Anvar in person and clarify his doubts. 

Accordingly, Ajith Kumar's friend Mujeeb dropped him off at the residence of Anvar's friend in Pattom. Ajith Kumar mentioned this meeting in his statement while defending Anvar's allegations against Mujeeb. According to Ajith Kumar, Anvar levelled baseless allegations against Mujeeb, although he had only met him when Mujeeb went with him for the meeting with Anvar. The Vigilance Court, while rejecting the probe report, has questioned the need for approval of the Kerala Chief Minister for the final report. In the report submitted by the Vigilance, it was shown that it had the approval of the Chief Minister.

The Special Investigation Unit - 1, VACB, recorded the IPS officer’s statement as part of a probe related to the misappropriation of wealth. The Special Vigilance court on Thursday rejected the VACB investigation report, calling it a name's sake inquiry and that the probe was manipulated. The government formed a high-level team led by the state police chief to probe the allegations raised by Anvar on September 3, 2024. Later, the DGP wrote to the government that the allegations raised by Anvar and his complaints have a vigilance angle in the form of misappropriation and corruption, attracting provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Vigilance ordered an inquiry on September 19, 2024.

As regarding his property, Ajith Kumar said he built his house in Kowdiar on 9.5 cents of land purchased by his father-in-law at ₹14.2 lakh and he only owns 4 cents of land in Manacaud gifted by his mother, according to his statement to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau. 

In his statement,  Ajith Kumar said that his father-in-law bought 8 cents of land at ₹12 lakh in Kowdiar in 2005 and another 1.5 cents in 2009 at  ₹2.2 lakh. This was bought in his wife Usha's name and the entire amount for the purchase was met by his father-in-law. In addition to this, 12 cents of land was also bought in 2010 by his father-in-law and it was assigned to his wife in 2022. Ajith Kumar said that all the details regarding these assets have been furnished in the annual property returns and have been duly communicated to the state government.

Ajith Kumar had bought a 2BHK flat in Kuravankonam from a prominent builder at a cost of  ₹33.9 lakh in 2010. He availed a loan of  ₹25 lakh and met the remaining cost from his personal savings to buy the flat, according to his statement. He sold this flat in 2016 at ₹65 lakh and the amount was transferred to his account in two instalments. According to him, all transactions were transparent and were done via bank. 

Ajith Kumar told the VACB that he did not get any substantial profit out of this sale since he had spent ₹8 lakh on furnishing and another  ₹3 lakh on building a car parking space with a restroom. He hadn't given the flat for rent either, and if he had rented out the flat, it would have fetched him ₹15 lakh in 6 years. During this period, he also paid an interest of ₹17 lakh for the loan. "From the sale of the flat, I didn't get much returns apart from what I had invested," he said in the statement. 

The probe report showed that Ajith Kumar and his family own 80.21 cents of land in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram with an estimated value of ₹8,77,58,000. The officer also noted in the report that the project cost of the house would come to ₹3,58,00,000 and that Ajith Kumar received a net salary of ₹2,33,004 and that he availed a home loan of  ₹1.50 crore. 

The Vigilance had declined to share details of the report in a response to Onmanorama's RTI query in May, saying that the information was private. However, the report is in public domain now, casting doubts about the vigilance department’s ’private information’ claim. Going by his statement, Ajith Kumar and his family own 21.5 cents of land in Kowdiar, where properties are valued at astronomical rates in Thiruvananthapuram.