PALAKKAD: SOON after the High Court rapped the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) for not registering case against controversial industrialist V M Radhakrishnan alias Chakku Radhakrishnan and others in the Malabar Cements corruption case, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption began a raid on the houses and offices of the accused in the case on Thursday.
The Vigilance sleuths of Palakkad and Thrissur units swooped down on the houses and offices of the Malabar Cements managing director K Padmakumar, Deputy marketing manager G Venugopal, Legal officer Prakash Joseph and others in the morning.
Earlier, the Vigilance had registered two cases in the wake of High Court criticising the government and the Vigilance for the shoddy handling of the cases related to import of fly ash and irregularities in the issuing of bank guarantees.
Vigilance DySP, Palakkad, told ‘Express’ the personnel have seized incriminating materials and documents from the house and office of the accused. The raid will go on late in the evening and only after the raid and scrutiny of the seized materials, details of the evidence can be made public, he said. The raid was being carried out under the aegis of six Vigilance circle inspectors and Vigilance DySP, Palakkad.
While considering the petition by Joy Kaitharath of Thrissur, citing delay in registering case, the High Court on Friday had directed the VACB director to register FIR against the accused within one week.
The court had also further said if the VACB director fails to register FIR, he would have to appear before the court in person to submit the legal position, observing that “all are equal before the law, and nobody should be treated more equal”. Following this, the Vigilance swung into action and if more evidence is received in the raid, the Vigilance would register separate cases against the accused, said officials.
Apart from Malabar Cements MD, Deputy marketing manager, and Legal officer, former MD M Sundaramoorthy, Ark Wood and Metal Pvt Ltd MD V M Radhakrishnan and Ark Wood Former Executive Director S Vadivelu, are also named as accused in the case.
According to petitioner, financial irregularities to the tune of `2.7 crore were detected and cognisable offences of criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy were proved against the suspected persons in the quick verification conducted by the Vigilance.