THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Placing Gyanesh Kumar under renewed scrutiny, a contractor who was part of the 2004 MC Road development project has alleged that the current Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) delayed clearing bills as state PWD secretary and demanded Rs 2-crore bribe from Lee See Been, chief project manager of the Indo-Malaysian joint venture PATI-BEL. This led to Lee’s suicide, Sajan B O told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
Sajan added that documents and evidence in his possession will be handed over to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), which is investigating irregularities in the World Bank-funded Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) road renovation contract.
“The 124-km road development project covering the Alappuzha-Changanassery and Changanassery-Madukkamoodu stretches was awarded for Rs 274 crore. However, the project was halted in 2005. Many contractors were involved in the project.
Bills cleared by other officials were withheld by Gyanesh Kumar, who solicited a Rs 2-crore bribe. However, the Malaysian company was not willing to pay the amount,” he said, adding that Lee diverted money from a Bangalore, now Bengaluru, project being implemented by the same company to clear dues and later committed suicide as project and fund clearances were deliberately withheld and he failed to meet the liabilities.
Sajan said he will cooperate with the Vigilance investigation. As PWD secretary, Gyanesh Kumar was in charge of the KSTP Main Central (MC) road work.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala ordered the Vigilance probe based on a complaint filed by Congress leader Malayinkeezhu Venugopal.
