Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said on Wednesday, November 4, that the state government has granted sanction for a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) investigation into allegations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar from his time as the state's Public Works Department (PWD) Secretary in 2006. The sanction was granted under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, after a legal opinion was examined and Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan was consulted, Chennithala said.

Source: IANS

The allegations, which are unproven and have led to no finding of guilt, come from a complaint by contractor V. O. Sajan. Sajan has alleged that Kumar demanded ₹2 crore from Malaysian engineer Lee See Bin to clear pending bills of the Pathibel consortium, which was working on the Kerala State Transport Project road upgrade between Thiruvananthapuram and Angamaly. The allegation is that the payment was sought in exchange for clearing contractor bills during Kumar's tenure as PWD Secretary.

Source: IANS

Chennithala said Kumar's present constitutional position does not prevent an investigation into alleged misconduct from his earlier service. He said the protection attached to the office of Chief Election Commissioner covers that office, not actions taken when he was PWD Secretary, and that Supreme Court judgments make clear there is no bar on such an investigation. He said it is now for the VACB to decide how to proceed under the law.

Source: ANI

This is the next formal step in a chain already reported earlier. On October 29, Kerala's Public Works Department Minister P. K. Basheer told the Assembly that a fresh preliminary inquiry had been ordered into the allegations, after an earlier vigilance examination of the same claims was reportedly closed without being fully completed. Wednesday's sanction is the legal authorisation the VACB needs to investigate; it is not itself a charge or a verdict.

Kumar heads India's election machinery as Chief Election Commissioner. The sanctioned investigation concerns only his 2006 service as a Kerala cadre IAS officer and PWD Secretary, not his work as Election Commissioner. The reports of the announcement carried no response from Kumar or the Election Commission.