UDF govt sanctions prosecution of East Eleri Congress rebel; Panthammakkal mocks VACB’s 80% excess wealth finding

Kasaragod: The UDF government has given the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) the green light to prosecute James Panthammakkal, the former East Eleri panchayat president and Congress rebel who kept the party out of power in its Kasaragod stronghold for nearly a decade.

The Local Self Government Department issued the sanction allowing the VACB to prosecute Panthammakkal in a disproportionate-assets case registered in 2018. The case relates to the period from January 1, 2007, to July 5, 2018, when he served as a ward member, president and vice-president of East Eleri grama panchayat.

According to the government order, the VACB estimated that Panthammakkal had acquired assets worth ₹78.97 lakh and incurred expenditure of ₹1.34 crore during the period. Together, this amounted to ₹2.13 crore, while his known and lawful income was assessed at ₹1.18 crore. The Vigilance calculated that ₹94.99 lakh was disproportionate to his known income, or 80.45% above it.

The government said it examined the investigation records and other material and concluded that Panthammakkal should be prosecuted. It granted sanction under Section 19(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Panthammakkal has been a persistent rebel in the Congress's East Eleri unit for more than a decade. He split from the party in 2015 and formed the Democratic Development Front (DDF), which won 10 of the panchayat's 16 seats that year, reducing the Congress to one seat each. The party was humiliated in its bastion.

In 2020, the Congress clawed back and won seven seats, matching the DDF's seven. Panthammakkal nevertheless returned as panchayat president with the support of CPM and other independent members.

In 2022, the then KPCC president K Sudhakaran brokered Panthammakkal's return to the Congress along with seven DDF members. He was made District Congress Vice-President. But factional tensions resurfaced the following year over the panchayat president's post.

By 2025, just before the local body elections, his relationship with the Congress broke down again. A fisticuff over local-body candidates led to his resignation as DCC vice-president, followed by his suspension and expulsion by the KPCC for “serious violation of party discipline”.

Panthammakkal had mocked the VACB's assessment of his income. He claimed his income during the period was not around ₹1 crore but more than ₹10 crore, and said it came mainly from his borewell business. “I had around 25 truck-mounted rigs. When I could not focus on the business, I gave them on rent. At one point, my income was ₹1 lakh a day. The Vigilance did not take into account the commission I was earning,” he said.

Panthammakkal said the VACB completed its investigation and submitted its report on March 13, 2025. “Though I antagonised the CPM, its government did not give the sanction to prosecute me,” he said. He added that returning to the Congress had been a mistake. “I should have stayed independent. Then both the CPM and the Congress would have needed me. Now I am caught between the devil and the deep sea,” he said.

Panthammakkal also said that when he entered politics, he had no debt and owned 90 sovereigns (720 grams) of gold. He claimed he now had a bank debt of ₹1.5 crore and no gold. “There will be a Cooperation Department's adalat in Kanhangad. I am going there to seek a 50% waiver on the interest on my loan,” said Panthammakkal, who also claimed that he had to pay ₹50,000 in wages to his workers every day. "I cannot take a break from my work even for a day. Else, I would have called a press conference and countered the government's charges."