Kerala Vigilance Opens Inquiry Into CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Overview

• The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has formed a specialised team to carry out a preliminary evidence-gathering inquiry after the state government approved a legal opinion and the home minister ordered the probe.
• Subcontractor V. O. Sajan has alleged that during Gyanesh Kumar’s tenure as PWD secretary he demanded a Rs 2 crore bribe and that approved cheques and bills worth about Rs 17 crore were deliberately withheld.
• Sajan appeared before VACB investigators on Monday and told reporters that an earlier 2006 inquiry was inadequate and that a company official’s statement naming Kumar was later changed under pressure.
• The allegation concerns the 2006 Kerala State Transport Project contract awarded to Malaysian–Indian joint venture PATI-BEL and references the project engineer Lee See Been, who later died by suicide in Malaysia during the original controversy.
• The probe is at a preliminary stage and does not mean formal charges; it comes while opposition parties are protesting over the CEC’s handling of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which could heighten political scrutiny.