KOCHI: Controversial former IAS officer T O Sooraj is again in the dock as the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) Ernakulam unit has registered a case against him and eight others in connection with the alleged corruption in the construction of the approach roads at the regulator- cum-bridge in Chamravattom in Malappuram district. The case has been registered following a directive from the Vigilance Court, Muvattupuzha.
The accused persons are Sooraj, former PWD secretary who was also the chairman of Kerala State Cons t ruc t ion Cor porat ion (KSCC), corporation managing director K S Raju, director P K Satheeshan, general manager Sreenarayan, managing director P R Santhosh Kumar, finance manager Sreekumar, and contracting firm Infrastructures and Developers’ P J Jacob, Viswanathan Vasu and K Joseph Paul. The case was registered after Kalamassery native Girish Babu lodged a complaint with the Vigilance Court, which directed the VACB to conduct a preliminary enquiry(PE) in 2017.
Though the VACB, after preliminary enquiry, filed a report stating that no corruption had taken place as alleged by the complainant, the court directed the VACB to register an FIR and conduct a probe in 2019. After one of the respondents, an undersecretary, protested her innocence the government decided to register an FIR. After leaving out the undersecretary, the FIR was registered against nine persons The allegation against the accused is that corruption to the tune of `2 crore had occurred in the construction of the five approach roads as part of Chamravattom regulator- cum-bridge project between 2012 and 2016.