THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The former CITU Pathanamthitta district office secretary Akhil Sajeev, who is wanted in the cash-for-job scam allegedly involving the personal staff of Health Minister Veena George, has been arrested by Pathanamthitta police from Theni.
Akhil was arrested in connection with two financial fraud cases registered by Pathanamthitta police in 2021 and 2022.
The Cantonment police that is probing the complaint filed by Akhil Mathew, personal staff of Veena, that the allegation was fabricated and needs to be investigated to bring out the truth, had arraigned the former CITU office secretary and his friend Lenin Raj, an advocate and a native of Malappuram, as accused in the case.
The allegation against the minister's office was raised by Malappuram native Haridas. According to Haridas, the minister's personal staff had taken Rs 1.75 lakh from him to facilitate the appointment of his daughter-in-law in Ayush Mission as Homeo medical officer, which is a contractual post.
The police have not registered any case on the allegation raised by Haridas, but lodged an FIR and started a probe on the complaint filed by the minister's personal staff.
The police had arrested a lawyer from Kozhikode, M K Raees, claiming that he had fabricated the mail ID from which the phoney appointment order was sent to Haridas' daughter-in-law.
The police version is that Akhil, Lenin and Raees played a role in hatching the conspiracy and the cash was received by the first two from Haridas.