P.K. Sreemathi and her son P.K. Sudheer NambiarAlappuzha: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has sought legal opinion on launching a probe against P.K. Sreemathi MP on complaints about the now-canceled appointment of her son to the helm of a public sector undertaking.
The bureau is all set to announce an investigation against Industries minister E.P. Jayarajan, a relative of Sreemathi, for nepotism in recruitment to key government posts.
VACB officers have asked the legal advisers to respond to their nine questions Thursday morning.
They include general questions regarding appointment to government posts, in the backdrop of a slew of complaints about the appointments made by the four-month-old Left Democratic Front government.
VACB Director Thomas Jacob will take a decision on investigating the roles of Jayarajan and Sreemathi based on the legal advise and consequent discussions, sources in the government said.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala, BJP leaders K Surendran and V Muraleedharan had approached the VACB with complaints about the appointments that put Jayarajan under a cloud.
The VACB, however, is planning to broaden the scope of the investigation as the bureau has received a lot of complaints against the Health and Education departments.
These complaints do not implicate the respective ministers though, sources said.
The barrage of criticism opened with the appointment of Sreemathi’s son, P K Sudheer Nambiar, as the managing director of the Kerala State Industrial Enterprises.
As a Member of Parliament, Sreemathi comes under the definition of a public servant as per section 2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The VACB’s officers wanted to know whether appointments fall under the definition of "valuable thing" as set out in section 13(1) of the Act.
