Court: No special protection for CM, Ministers
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy seems to be destined to wage his war all alone in the Rs 200-crore Titanium corruption case against him and two of his Cabinet colleagues with virtually no word of support coming from top State Congress leaders even when the court has made it clear that no prior permission is required to register a case against the Chief Minister or his Ministers.
On Friday, Chandy and his Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, another accused in the graft case, claimed innocence and rejected the Opposition demand for resignation. Chandy said the project with alleged corruption was not implemented when he was in power while Chennithala claimed that he was not even in the Government when the project was approved in 2006.
While speaking to mediapersons in Kochi, Chandy said, “There was no need to drag Chennithala into this case as he had nothing to do with the project in question.” Quite surprisingly, Chennithala did not attempt to defend Chandy in the corruption case when he claimed innocence. “let me study the court order,” was all he said when asked about the charge against Chandy.
The Special Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram had on Thursday ordered a fresh probe against Chandy, Chennithala, Public Works Minister Ibrahim Kunju and eight others in connection with the alleged corruption in the pollution-control plant project at the factory of public sector Travancore Titanium Products limited, approved eight years back.
As per the case based on a petition from a former titanium employee, the former Congress-led UDF Government headed by Chandy himself had caused huge losses to the exchequer by opting to construct a Rs 256.01-crore pollution-control plant and allowing the rusting of machinery worth Rs 70 crore imported even before the project was approved.
Quoting relevant Supreme Court verdicts, the court made it clear that no special permission was required for proceeding against Chandy and his two Cabinet colleagues as they were not in the Government in 2006 when the complaint had first come up and the first probe was held. Chennithala was the president of the State Congress during that period.
Not many Congress leaders in the State have shown the urgency to come to the aid of Chandy even when he is trapped in a serious crisis. When most leaders eagerly defended Chennithala saying that he was just the PCC chief when the alleged corruption took place, only a few men from Chandy’s own ‘A’ group had backed his claims of innocence.
Observers point out that the graft case has been re-enlivened at a time when Chandy is facing a lot of criticisms in the Congress over the revengeful manner in which he had forced the party and the ruling UDF it is leading to accept his ‘unilateral’ proposal for total liquor ban in the State after being pushed to a corner over the issue of reopening of 418 closed bars.
The lack of interest among top Congressmen to come to the defence of Chandy was obvious when PCC president VM Sudheeran said that he was unable to understand the logic behind making Chennithala an accused in the case and that the party would examine the case against the Chief Minister.
Chandy said that he had an active role in the decision to erect the pollution-control plant at Travancore Titanium and he had played that role to ensure that the factory did not close down in the name of pollution. “I am ready to face any kind of investigation though I am sure about my innocence. I had done everything in the interest of the factory’s employees,” he said.
Chennithala said that it was still unable to understand why he was being made an accused in the case when the Cabinet had approved the project 42 days before he became the PCC chief and when he was neither a minister nor an MlA. “Still, being a public servant, I am ready to face the investigation,” he said in Kannur.