Kannur: The UDF-led Kerala government on Friday sanctioned a Vigilance investigation against former Kannur district panchayat president and CPM leader P P Divya, her husband V P Ajith and former district panchayat secretary Abdul Latheef over alleged irregularities in the award of construction contracts worth more than ₹12 crore to a private company for modular toilets and other public works.

Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala authorised the investigation under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, acting on a complaint submitted by Kerala Students Union (KSU) state vice-president P Muhammed Shammas on June 28. The decision reverses the previous LDF government's position on the same complaint.

Shammas, a native of Peringome in Kannur, alleged that contracts worth ₹12 crore for installing prefabricated modular toilets and girl-friendly prefabricated modular toilets in various schools across the district, and the setting up of an animal birth control centre at Padiyoor panchayat near Iritty, went to Carton India Alliance Pvt Ltd.

According to Shammas, Divya and her husband Ajith are linked to Carton India, started in 2021, soon after she became the district panchayat president, and it went on to win all contracts worth crores of rupees awarded through Steel Industrials Kerala Ltd (SILK), a government-accredited agency.

In an order dated January 21, 2026, the LDF government declined permission for a preliminary inquiry against Divya, stating that the verification conducted by the Vigilance Bureau had found no evidence of her intervention to secure contracts for Carton India Alliance Pvt Ltd. It noted that Carton India Alliance held Central and State startup registration certificates, making it eligible for exemptions intended to encourage startup participation in public procurement.

The LDF government, however, admitted that SILK did not give wide publicity to the bids called in 2023-2024, which it said was only a "procedural irregularity" and denied permission to conduct a preliminary inquiry into Divya's role.

Shammas told Onmanorama that, without publicity, the companies that took part in the bidding needed to be investigated, as they could be paper companies that helped Carton win the contract.

Though the LDF government did not give permission to investigate Divya, it sanctioned a preliminary inquiry against former district panchayat secretary Abdul Latheef A V under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act to examine whether he flouted the Kerala Stores Purchase Manual.

The LDF government took the decision after Shammas got an order from the High Court directing the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home and Vigilance Department to pass orders on the matter within two months.

After the UDF came to power, Shammas filed another complaint in June to Chennithala, asking him to grant sanction for a Vigilance investigation against Divya.
He accused the previous government of shielding Divya by treating the allegations as a procedural lapse despite the scale of the contracts and the alleged links between the company and her family.

The latest sanction allows the Vigilance Bureau to investigate the allegations concerning the company's ownership, the identity of rival bidders and the land transactions, which remain to be established through investigation.

The development comes a day after Divya appeared to hint at a possible break with the CPM through a Facebook post invoking a parable attributed to Buddha.
In the post on Thursday, she wrote that a raft that helps someone cross a river need not be carried for the rest of one's life, adding that letting it go was not ingratitude but a lesson learnt from life. The post fuelled speculation that she was distancing herself from the party, though she did not announce a decision to leave it.

Divya's political standing had suffered a major setback following the death by suicide of former Kannur Additional District Magistrate K Naveen Babu in October 2024. She had publicly criticised Babu at his farewell function at the Kannur Collectorate, accusing him of corruption. She was subsequently booked on the charge of abetting his suicide and had to resign as district panchayat president.

The CPM later demoted her from its Kannur district committee and directed her to work in the Irinavu branch committee.