The CBI on Monday filed chargesheets against the accused, including some officials of the Coir Board, in two cases of financial scam before the special court in Kochi. The CBI filed five split chargesheets in two cases.
According to the chargesheet, the accused are P C Antonel Vaz, Joint- Director (Planning); V Babu, Deputy Director (ID); K V Mohanan , Extension Service officer; K G Raghavan, Regional officer; Salilamma T A, owner, Reshmi Wood Industries Avalookunnu, Alappuzha; Rajendra Prasad, Proprietor, Vayalar Fibre Mills, Alappuzha; P Babu and C V Rajendran, owners of S Engineer, Avalookunnu, Alappuzha; T Raveendran, Regional officer (retd), Registration Department and T N Sathyavan, owner of Higher Engineering works, Alappuzha.
The charges against them are criminal conspiracy, forgery for purpose of cheating and various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Investigation officer Babu Mathew, Inspector, CBI, submitted that the The officials had misused their power and entered into a criminal conspiracy in 2008 with the other accused and cheated the Coir Board in implementing the rejuvenation, modernisation and technological upgradation (REMOT) scheme.
According to the CBI, Antonal Vaz was responsible for implementing the REMOT, during the 11th plan for modernisation of Coir industry. Babu selected the applicants for loan under the scheme and forwarded their applications to the banks for sanctioning the loan. In May 2008, the accused prepared an agenda for the first meeting of the committee for implementing the scheme.
The meeting suggested to amend the operational guidelines approved by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to include the existing units for supplying machines under the scheme. However, the Ministry rejected it. According to the chargesheet, the accused deviated from the operation guidelines. Salilamma availed of a loan of `3.75 lakh , Rajendra Prasad of 121.26 lakh, P Babu and C V Rajendran together `3.49 lakh and T N Sathyavan received loan of `8.56 lakh.