THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former minister and UDF MLA K B Ganesh Kumar piggybacked on Ayyappa devotees to make good on his promise to expose “bigger crooks than T O Sooraj”.
Though he claimed to have evidence against at least two ministers, Ganesh revealed only the names of the personal staff of public works minister V K Ebrahim Kunju: M Abdul Raffi, special private secretary; A Nasimudeen, assistant private secretary; and I M Abdul Rahiman, additional personal assistant. Ebrahim Kunju rejected the charges, saying Ganesh behaved as if he had been possessed by somebody else's spirit.
“The PWD minister’s office is a den of corruption. I don’t hold a brief for T O Sooraj (former PWD secretary) but Sooraj could not have looted alone,” Ganesh Kumar said in the Assembly on Tuesday while moving a calling attention on the difficulties experienced by Ayyappa devotees as a result of the non -repair of Punalur-Muvattupuzha road. He said that the three were involved in corruption worth crores.
“It is they who move the files in the minister’s office, they rule the department. They demand between Rs 60 and Rs 70 lakh to get a road work done,” he charged. Congress MLA C P Muhammad, who was in the chair, prevented Ganesh from continuing with the charges. “You will first have to give the chair a written submission. This would have enabled the minister to prepare a response,” the chair said.
“If that is the case, I have adequate dope on another minister, too,” Ganesh said, raising a pink file. Ganesh’s demand for a legislative committee to probe into his charges was also rejected by the chair. When he felt thwarted, Ganesh said that he would go to the media with all the details. Ganesh, however, gave the press a miss.
Ebrahim Kunju gave his staff a clean chit. Ganesh had termed Nasimudeen as a man “well-known for corruption”. “The charges against Nasimudeen were proved to be false after a detailed enquiry by the police,” the minister said.
Abdul Raffi, he said, was a senior bureaucrat with an impeccable record. As for Abdul Rahiman, the minister said that he was never part of the minister’s office in the capital.
Ebrahim Kunju then asked whether anyone in the opposition had suffered insulting behaviour from his staff. “If a single opposition member can give me a written complaint, I will take action,” he said
