Kerala Vigilance looking at eight charges against CEC Gyanesh Kumar to reopen old corruption cases

Home minister Ramesh Chennithala said in the Assembly on Wednesday that a decision to reopen corruption cases against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar would be taken after conducting a thorough evaluation of the files and documents related to the 20-year old cases.

The home minister was responding to a Submission moved by Muslim League MLA A K M Asharf in the Assembly. He said that he had received a complaint from a public activist named Malayinkeezh Venugopal. "It is said that Gyanesh Kumar's name was mentioned in the suicide note of Lee See Been (Pati-Bel's project manager for the KSTP work along the MC road stretch from Angamaly to Thiruvananthapuram)," Chennithala said.

"This happened twenty years before. But crime never dies. A crime will remain a crime even if 20 or 30 years have passed," Chennithala said, and added that he had forwarded the letter to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The home minister said that one thing was certain. "Gyanesh Kumar is someone who had pushed the entire nation into a crisis. Massive protests have erupted across the country after large-scale disenfranchisement of voters has been reported," he said. "Nonetheless, I am not trying to connect Gyanesh Kumar's old conduct to what is happening in our country right now. The investigation will be done in a fair manner," he said.

The home minister said that two decades ago the VACB had conducted a probe into infrastructure works that were carried out during the period when Gyanesh Kumar was the PWD secretary. The order to probe the then PWD secretary's role was issued on December 29, 2006 .

Chennithala listed the eight charges against Gyanesh Kumar. One, the state government suffered a loss of ₹700 crore by releasing a higher amount to the contractors picked for the KSTP work than the estimated cost. Two, ₹323 crore was spent on land acquisition and resettlement in the place of the estimated ₹187 crore.

Three, the 2004 CAG report noted that the government suffered a loss of ₹84 crore as a result of the arbitrary increases in the tender amounts. Four, the foreign consultant engaged by the KSTP, ignoring government institutions like NATPAC (National Transportation Planning and Research Centre) and Centre for Earth Sciences (CESS), was paid ₹50 crore.

Five, a mobilisation fund was released to contractors before agreements were signed. Six, PWD officials sought ₹2 crore to pass the bills of agencies involved in development works. Seven, bills were passed without proper scrutiny. Eight, the monitoring committee failed in its duty.

"Since these allegations could not be proved, the Vigilance filed a report saying that no further probe was required," Chennithala said.

In all, eight vigilance cases were registered following the finding that 76 PWD works were done without inviting tenders. The then PWD secretary was among the accused. "But all of them were reported as 'mistake of fact' before the Vigilance Court," Chennithala said.