CVC IS ON BAIL

By Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

T'Puram, Sept. 13

It might be a rare honour for the nation. The officer who is holding
the highest position in the nations Vigilance machianery is indeed on
bail in a Vigilance case !

P.J.Thomas, the Kerala-cadre IAS officer who has been appointed as
Chief Vigilance Commissioner amidst controversies, is on bail from the
court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) in
Thiruvananthapuram in the sensational Palmoline case.

According to the information available with Express, Thomas, who was a
former Civil Supplies secretary, appeared before the court on Apirl
2, 2003 as per a summons issued by the court in connection with the
Palmoline case and was granted bail. Former Chief Secretary
Padmakumar and former Additional Chief Secretaray Zachariah Mathew
also appeared before the court on the same day and were granted bail.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) which probed into the
Palmoline case had filed the chargesheet against the eight persons
including Thomas in November 1999. On March 12, 2003 the court issued
summons to all the eight accused. The others accused, including former
Chief Minister K.Karunakaran, Civil Supplies Minister T.H.Mustaffa and
Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation Managing Director Jiji
Thomson, appeared before the court on April 9 and were granted bail.

Meanwhile, contradictory to the observation of the Central Vigilance
Commission justifying the involvement of P.J.Thomas and Jiji Thomson
in the case, it has also come to light that the Supreme Court had
observed that the case against the accused could not be considered as
a “result of malafides or actuated by extraneous considerations.”
While dismissing a petition filed by Karunakaran seeking quashing of
the FIR in the case in March 29, 2000 the Supreme Court observed that
“the menace of corruption cannot be permitted to be hidden under the
carpet of legal technicalities.”

It is also pointed out that the VACB had filed the chargesheet in the
case as per a direction of the Supreme Court. The High Court had also
observed that prima facie there was corruption in deal and the
Comptroller and Auditor General had detected irregularities in the
deal.

“The question is not over the involvement of P.J.Thomas in the
corruption, but over the ethics in appointing a person who is still an
accused in a Vigilance case to the top most post of CVC. Thomas should
have been appointed to such a post only after he is exhonerated by the
court,” said a senior counsel.

Ends.