The Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) on Monday registered FIR against two of the star Ministers in the former Congress-led UDF Government, Adoor Prakash of the Congress and PK Kunhalikutty of the Muslim league, in a land allotment case involving controversial godman Santhosh Madhavan.
The special investigations unit (II) of the VACB in Thiruvananthapuram registered the FIR against Prakash and Kunhalikutty on the basis of an order issued on Saturday by the Vigilance Court in Muvattupuzha, Ernakulam district. Prakash was Revenue Minister and Kunhalikutty was Industries and IT Minister in the former UDF Government headed by Oommen Chandy.
The registration of the FIR against two of the leading Ministers in the former UDF Government and the court order that led to it are big setbacks to front leader Congress and the Muslim league, second biggest front partner, in the context of the devastation the coalition had suffered in the recent Assembly polls.
The Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge of the Vigilance Court in Muvattupuzha had ordered initiation of a case against the former Ministers and four others by rejecting the recommendation of the VACB Director, who submitted a quick verification report on the matter, to drop further proceedings.
The case pertains to an order issued by the former Government on March 2 last, just two days before the announcement of the schedule for the Assembly election, giving exemption from provisions of the Kerala land Reforms Act to 127 acres of land held earlier by the godman for setting up an IT park. The land was earlier seized from him.
Though the Government might not have suffered any losses in the controversial land deal, the Vigilance Court had found that there had been efforts to perpetrate corruption. The controversial decision of the former Cabinet pertained to 95.44 acres of land in Puthenvelikkara and 32.41 acres in Madathumpady in Thrissur district.
The Vigilance Court pointed out that the VACB had recommended dropping of the case without considering its facts and the violations of laws involved. It also pointed out that the Vigilance had failed to consider the role of the then Industries Department under Kunhalikutty in the permission given for starting an IT park in the land mired in controversies.
The Vigilance judge said in his order that the VACB Director should register a case under Section 156 (3) of the CrPC against Adoor Prakash, Kunhalikutty, Santhosh Madhavan, RMZ Eco World Infrastructure limited, Bangalore, the company to which the exemption in land rules was given, its managing director BM Jayasankar and a top bureaucrat.
The decision pertaining to the controversial land allotment was one of the many taken as out-of-agenda proposals by the former UDF Cabinet in haste in its last meetings held just before the announcement of the Assembly elections. Several of these decisions were allegedly taken in violation of the existing laws regarding land control.
Apart from the lDF, then in Opposition, State Congress president VM Sudheeran, vice-president VD Satheesan and several others had come out openly against these controversial orders forcing the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to withdraw them causing much damage to the Congress and the UDF on the campaign scene for the Assembly election.
Sudheeran had even declared a war against Chandy over the issue and asked the party high command not to let Adoor Prakash contest in the election. The issue is yet to be settled in the Congress. Several speakers at the just-concluded meeting of the Kerala PCC executive had opined that the land deal was one of the reasons for the UDF’s defeat in the polls.