Titanium: Cops to probe 2006 case, Relief to CM Oommen Chandy

Kochi: In a huge relief to chief minister Oommen Chandy and two of his cabinet colleagues, Kerala high court on Friday asked the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to register a case in the Titanium scam based on a complaint filed in 2006 and go ahead with the investigation. In the first complaint,  only six company officials were included as accused.

It was in 2011 that the complaint against Mr  Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala  and PWD Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju was filed.

On Friday, the Vigilance department submitted before the court that it had decided to register a case based on the complaint in 2006. Justice K. Ramakrishnan recorded the submission and permitted the VACB to go ahead with the probe.

"The investigating agency is at liberty to collect whatever evidence needed for the purpose of investigation," the court said.

The VACB would conduct a probe against Travancore Titanium Products Ltd, the first accused and managing director Eapen Joseph, former MD Santhosh Kumar, chief manager/marketing A.M. Bhaskaran, executive director Thomas Mathew and former chief commercial manager B. Kumaran Nair, the other five accused.

The court disposed of a plea filed by principal secretary T. Balakrishnan.  Mr S. Rajeev appearing for Mr Balakrishnan argued that the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance court order to register an FIR against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, PWD Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju and 6 others in  the Titanium case on August 28, 2014 was illegal.

The Vigilance court forwarded the first complaint to the Vigilance director on November 2006 for conducting a preliminary probe.

After the preliminary inquiry, the Vigilance concluded that there was no criminal misconduct on the part of the officials of the company.

When the report was pending before the special judge, Mr Sebastian George of Peravoor, Kannur, filed another complaint in 2011 accusing the Chief Minister and others.