Kalpetta: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has registered a case against Sulthan Bathery MLA and former Congress district president IC Balakrishnan, in connection with the probe into the alleged bribery linked to Wayanad Cooperative Bank. The bribery case came under investigation following the suicide of District Congress Committee (DCC) treasurer NM Vijayan and his son Jijesh. 

The Vigilance team, headed by DySP Shaji Varghese, registered a First Information Report (FIR) after conducting a preliminary investigation the other day. The team had also collected the complaints from different individuals, letters, and the suicide note of late NM Vijayan, and recorded statements from the complainants and witnesses over the past few months, sources said. 

The alleged financial irregularities raised by NM Vijayan in his suicide note and the role of IC Balakrishnan in the transactions carried out when he was the DCC president are under probe. Before registering the FIR, permission was also obtained from the VACB Director, as IC Balakrishnan is a member of the legislative assembly. 

NM Vijayan had allegedly taken the extreme step due to mounting debts, as he had pledged his land documents to avail huge loans to run the party machinery in the district. Recently, the Congress party had settled an amount of ₹58.23 lakh to release the title documents of his land from the Sulthan Bathery Urban Cooperative Bank. The case against IC Balakrishnan was registered in connection with allegations of his accepting a bribe for a job at the Congress-ruled Sulthan Bathery Cooperative Urban Bank. 

According to Vijayan's suicide note, he had received the bribe on behalf of IC Balakrishnan, then DCC president, who had promised to give jobs to those who paid an advance for posts expected to emerge in the cooperative bank. In an earlier letter to the KPCC president, NM Vijayan had demanded intervention to ensure jobs for those who had paid the advance amount as a bribe. 

The vigilance is considering the complaints of several individuals, including Peter George, a retired school teacher from Ambalavayal,  who claimed that he had paid as much as ₹30 lakhs to NM Vijayan on the written assurance that the amount would be returned if the party failed to secure his son a job. Peter George has also circulated copies of the agreement to the media, police and vigilance. 

When the allegations surfaced against him, IC Balakrishnan had claimed that his name was deliberately included in the documents as part of a political conspiracy to tarnish his image. Though Onmanorama tried to contact him, he was not available on his mobile phone for his comments. 

Vijayan and his son Jijesh were found in a critical condition after consuming poison at his home in Manichira, on December 24. They were rushed to a private hospital, and later to Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, but Vijayan died on December 27.