A court in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday harshly criticised the Director of Kerala’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) for the alleged delay in investigations against Ministers and top Government officials forcing him to convene an urgent meeting of officials and instruct them to take prompt action on complaints.
While considering a petition seeking orders for a VACB probe into a serious corruption allegation against Marxist Minister J Mercykutty Amma, the Special Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram expressed displeasure at the delay in investigations against Ministers and top officials.
Petitioner P Raheem, a lawyer, had approached the court after the Vigilance failed to initiate action on his complaint against the Minister for a long time after he lodged it in November. The court asked the bureau why investigations were getting delayed even after receiving complaints and why petitioners had to approach it.
When the Prosecution submitted that a quick verification had already been initiated against Mercykutty Amma, the court pointed out that this had happened only after the petitioner approached it three times. The Vigilance Director had ordered a quick verification against Mercykutty Amma on Monday.
Special Vigilance Judge A Badaruddin reminded the bureau that such delay had occurred in launching inquiries against former Industries minister EP Jayarajan of the CPI(M) over charges of nepotism and Additional DGP R Sreelekha. He asked the bureau to submit the report of its quick verification against the Minister by February 17.
Following the court’s criticisms, Vigilance Director Jacob Thomas held an urgent meeting of his officials handling probes in important cases and issued some tough instructions. He reportedly told them that there should be no delay in starting follow-up actions on complaints received at the Vigilance headquarters.
Jacob Thomas, described often as an upright and unbiased official, told the bureau officials that the concerned Superintendents of Police (Vigilance) could take own decisions on the complaints received at their respective units. He also instructed them that all investigations should be completed in a time-bound manner.
The Vigilance’s explanation for the delay in investigations is that it does not have the required staff strength. According to officials, the bureau has written to the Government several times about this but there has been no action in this regard.