THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union Minister of State for Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam is facing the heat after the High Court of Kerala directed the Additional Director General of Police (Crime) to investigate a criminal case on a petition filed by former Accountant General of Kerala James K Joseph.
James Joseph has filed a criminal case against Alphons Kannanthanam and the officers of the Ministry of Personnel Budh Prakash, Kesabdesi Raju and A N Tiwari in 2014 and the Vattiyoorkavu police have registered a First Information Report (FIR).
As there were no further proceedings on the part of the police even after four years, James Joseph moved the High Court. The present order was issued by the court on the basis of this petition. The case was that in 2004, Kannanthanam and the officers in the Union Ministry of Personnel had torpedoed the posting of James Joseph as a member of the Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT) by spreading false information.
The allegation was that while being the Accountant General of Kerala, James Joseph had conducted illegal appointments. James Joseph had proved this wrong using materials obtained through the Right to Information Act. The High Court considered the documents presented by James Joseph and issued an order in his favour. The court also directed to transfer all relevant documents to the investigating officer.
‘Original report sent by IB was changed’
When contacted James K Joseph told Express: “Myself and Alphons were trustees of an educational institution and fell out with each other and during this period I got the CAT posting. The original report sent by IB was changed and a forged report was presented to the PMO by the Personnel Ministry for which Alphons conspired with his IAS colleagues in the DoPT who are all named in the FIR now. This came to my knowledge after I collected the details of the report through an RTI application.” “Following the false IB report, I was denied the CAT job,” he said.
However, Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam said: “I don’t know whether there is an order on that line. I have not yet received any copy or message regarding the same. How am I related to a case in which someone was denied a posting in CAT. And that too fourteen years ago.”I don’t have any idea about it, Kannanthanam said.