Kerala High Court registers suo motu case in suicide of businessman

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday registered a suo motu case over NRI businessman Sajan Parayil’s suicide death due to the delay in getting approval from the Anthoor municipality for an auditorium constructed at a cost of Rs 15 crore by him.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice asked the state government to submit a report to the court by July 15.

Stating that the death has disturbed the court the bench observed that when applications like this have piled up before the government, to keep silence on the subject will be an unpardonable crime.

The court cannot bring back the dead person. But, at least, the government should take appropriate action now, the judges said.        

The court has asked the government to submit the entire documents from the date of the application submitted by Mr Parayil, the notes and letters issued to him and all other relevant documents. The government should itself conduct a department-level probe and bring out all the facts. Only by taking such an action the society will have a feeling that something has been done in the matter. Incidents like this convey a very wrong message to industrialists and a continuation of such a situation will make the life of entrepreneurs miserable.

Counsel for the government stated that disciplinary action has been initiated against the officials found guilty and all steps would be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future. He also said that the government is implementing single-window clearance system to smoothen the process.

The court, however, was not satisfied with the oral explanation and said that it wanted to have first-hand information about what had happened by examining the relevant documents.

Urban affairs wing visits biz man’s centre

A high-level team of the Department of Urban Affairs has started a probe into the allegation against the Anthoor municipality in connection with the suicide of NRK businessman Sajan Parayil the other day.

The municipality’s denial of clearance for his Partha convention centre citing flippant reasons had reportedly led to his suicide.

The team led by department joint director (north zone) K.P. Vinayan collected the details from the municipal office and examined the documents regarding the delay in issuing occupancy certificate to the centre on Friday. It also visited the site of the building and crosschecked the allegations of municipal officials that the centre had violated building rules and regulations.  The team will submit a report to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan soon.

Meanwhile, Beena, wife of Sajan, submitted a petition to Mr Vijayan demanding action against Anthoor municipal chairperson P.K. Syamala. Her vengeance had forced Sajan to take the extreme step, she alleged. Beena also accused the chairperson of misusing her powers.

Earlier, four officials of the municipality were suspended pending inquiry over the incident.

The CPM state secretariat will discuss the issue on Saturday. Syamala is the wife of CPM central committee member M.V. Govindan.

The CPM Taliparamba area committee discussed the matter on Friday when the members attributed the arrogance of the chairperson for the tragedy. This had brought shame to the party, they said.