As nationwide protests intensify demanding the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Kerala’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched a fresh investigation against him. Gyanesh Kumar, an IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, previously served as the state’s Public Works Department secretary. In Kerala, under the KSTP project for the MC Road upgrade, a contract worth Rs. 215 crore for a 127-kilometer road work was awarded to a joint venture between Malaysia’s Pati company and Kochi-based Bhagiratha Engineering. Although the project was supposed to be completed by December 2005, the work stalled due to delays in the government’s land acquisition. As a result, the government withheld bills worth Rs. 17 crore that were to be paid to the company. At that time, allegations arose that Gyanesh Kumar, who was then the Public Works Department secretary, along with senior officials, had demanded bribes worth several crores and obstructed the work. Deeply distressed by this, Lee See Pin, a Malaysian engineer who was the company’s Kerala project manager, returned to Malaysia and died by suicide. Reports at the time said that the suicide note contained the names of Gyanesh Kumar and other officials. Following this, when the V.S. Achuthanandan government took office in 2006, Gyanesh Kumar was removed from the post of Public Works Department secretary.

A re-investigation has now been ordered into the irregularities in the K.S.T.P road project contract, as well as the case involving the suicide of the chief engineer of the Malaysian contracting firm in connection with it. The Kerala Vigilance Department has begun a preliminary inquiry into this nearly 20-year-old corruption case, and a special investigation team headed by the Vigilance Director will carry out a detailed probe. In particular, the Public Works Department records from 2005 and the preliminary investigation files from 2006 are now being thoroughly re-examined. Since no further action was taken on the complaint at the time, Gnanesh Kumar moved to central government service. Although an investigation was conducted then against the then Public Works Department Minister M.K. Muneer in connection with the contract scam, the court acquitted him of the case. However, there was no adequate investigation into the suicide of the foreign engineer against government officials.

In this situation, based on a complaint filed a few days ago by Kerala State Congress member Venugopal, Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has ordered an inquiry into Gyanesh Kumar. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said that the allegations against Gyanesh Kumar are extremely serious, and that this order was issued only after obtaining the advice of legal experts and consulting with the Chief Minister, since the complaint appeared to have merit. It has also been legally clarified that his current constitutional post as Chief Election Commissioner will in no way be an obstacle to investigating matters that took place while he was an official in the past. With the Gyanesh Kumar issue once again erupting on a large scale, there has been a stir at the national level.
