The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) entrusted with the probe into the allegations of corruption in the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) involving former PWD Secretary and present Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, has not so far come across anything which indicates the previous vigilance investigation done in 2007-2012 was flawed. However, a letter from a former contractor Sajan V O, who was closely associated with the works undertaken by PATI-BEL, the Joint Venture firm for KSTP, may force the agency to look into the allegations more closely.

In a letter submitted to the Vigilance Director on October 23, Sajan raises bribery allegations against Gyanesh Kumar. He has also offered to furnish details of all the engineers and contractors who had been associated with the project. The bribery allegation cited by Sajan is, in fact, not new. According to the letter, PATI chief project manager Lee See Been, who died by suicide in 2006, had mentioned about four bills worth ₹14 crore being blocked by Gyanesh demanding a bribe of ₹2 crore. Sajan used to supply labour, materials and vehicles for PATI-BEL, and when the payment was halted, he, along with other contractors, took it up with Lee, who then allegedly told Sajan about the bills being not cleared on time for want of bribe.

The Vigilance SIU-1 (Special Investigation Unit-1), which registered a case in 2007, had covered 8 complaints, one of which was a ₹2 crore bribery allegation against PWD officials. PWD Minister PK Basheer also stated in the Assembly on October 29 that this allegation was probed by the VACB. The other complaints were against allowing contracts for road works at an amount higher than the estimate, allowing tenders for road improvement at ₹1209 crore when the estimate was ₹787 crore, fixing estimate for construction at ₹343 crore while the estimate allowed was ₹244 crore, expenditure of ₹323 crore for land acquisition when the estimate was ₹187 crore, consultancy payment of ₹50 crore to NATPAC and CESS, payment of mobilisation sum before the agreement was signed, clearance of bills without scrutiny and failure of monitoring committee. A CAG report, which pegged loss of ₹84 crore related to the project, was also probed by the VACB.

The government ordered a new probe into these allegations based on a legal opinion. A preliminary assessment of the SIU-1 showed that the former investigation had covered all the tracks. Sajan told Onmanorama that the VACB had never asked him about the allegations earlier. "It wasn't just me, there were many other people involved in the project. They never came to us," he said.

PATI-BEL had set up a camp office at Chadayamangalam near Sajan's house. He said he had signed work agreements with Sukumaran, a Malaysian citizen who had served as PATI-BEL's work manager. "I used to talk to Sukumaran and Lee frequently as they required labour, vehicles and metal aggregate. It was when the payments got delayed, he told us about Gyanesh Kumar blocking bills for bribe," he said. Sajan said that not just Vigilance but none from the police department ever contacted him or his associates about corruption allegations or Lee's suicide. Senior Intelligence officials, who had served then, told Onmanorama that Malaysian police also didn't pursue the matter. Lee's driver and close aide Shahjahan was also not approached by the Vigilance as part of the investigation, said Sajan. Sukumaran later returned to Malaysia.

Sajan, quoting Sukumaran, recounted that Lee had prepared his suicide note in Kerala before leaving for Malaysia. "At one point, he had diverted funds from another project in Karnataka to clear some of the dues in Kerala. When the pressure mounted, he wrote a note and kept two copies—one for his wife and another for the company chief. Sukumaran told us about this," said Sajan, who later quit contractor job. He then retired as a school headmaster. The police have not been able to establish that Lee had left behind a suicide note implicating Gyanesh Kumar. The VACB probe, which began in 2007, had not looked into the suicide of Lee. The PWD Minister has also stated this in the Assembly.

Sajan said he had no clue about the previous vigilance investigation and, after consulting with former associates, he decided to approach the VACB now. The VACB has not decided on how to go about the content of the letter submitted by Sajan. The officials said that the probe into the old complaints had not yielded anything to fix charges against Gyanesh Kumar.