The Kerala home department summoned files regarding a 2006 vigilance inquiry against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The probe started after the suicide of engineer Lee See Been, who worked on the Kerala State Transport Project. Officials said many documents went missing, but the government now wants to review them.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a politically significant move, the home department has summoned files pertaining to the vigilance bureau's preliminary inquiry against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in 2006, when he was serving as the works secretary in Keralam. The move comes in the backdrop of protests by the INDIA bloc against the CEC for pushing the SIR of electoral rolls.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had carried out a preliminary probe against Gyanesh following the suicide of a Malaysian civil engineer two decades ago.
Sources said the home department asked for files relating to the enquiry that was launched following the suicide of Lee See Been, who had served as chief project manager for PATI-BEL, an Indo-Malaysian consortium involved in upgrading the MC Road under the multi-billion Kerala State Transport Project. Lee died by suicide in Kuala Lumpur apparently after his bid to get bills cleared were stone-walled by government officials.
The 1998-batch IAS officer got dragged into the row after Lee's suicide note mentioned his name. Lee's notes testified about the systemic corruption that plagued the project implementation and his death triggered a massive row, prompting the LDF government of the time to announce a vigilance inquiry.
However, the vigilance soon lost steam and the enquiry was reportedly stalled. Confidential sources said most of the documents connected to the case could not be retrieved in the initial search. The crime branch too had shown interest in the case back then but a quick search at its office also did not yield any result regarding the documents, sources added.
The government's move to explore the scope of a continued inquiry could push the CPM too into a dilemma as it was in power when the episode played out. Currently, the CPM is actively on the warpath against Gyanesh.