Kerala: Court chides Vigilance for report

Kochi: The vigilance court in Muvattupuzha on Monday expressed displeasure over the quick verification report filed by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) in the controversial land deal allegedly involving jailed 'godman' Santhosh Madhavan. The court asked the VACB to file an additional report and posted the case for May 2.

The VACB took a stand that the order making exemptions in the Kerala Land Reforms Act was not Adoor Prakash's  decision. “It was the minister himself who recommended the file to Chief Minister to cancel the order,” the report said.
It stated that based on the recommendation of the revenue minister, the matter was again reconsidered and the earlier order was cancelled on March 23.

“It revealed during the inquiry the company sought exemption deliberately and maliciously suppressing the earlier rejection order in 2013. The court asked the authorities to explain the allegations levelled by Girish Babu, the petitioner who moved the court seeking probe into the case.

“On a perusal of the complaint, and documents produced it seems Adoor Prakash and Vishwas Mehta were having knowledge regarding the issuance of the order. A quick verification is necessary to ascertain whether there had occurred any misconduct on the part of them and how the private company obtained the order," special judge P. Madhavan had observed while ordering a probe.