Thiruvananthapuram: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has assured the Vigilance special court here that the quick verification report of the probe into the land encroachment by a private builder at Pattoor will be filed before February 23. The assurance was given following strictures from the court over the undue delay in submitting the report.
The case assumes significance as former chief minister Oommen Chandy and former chief secretary E. K. Bharat Bhushan are among those facing allegations of illegally facilitating the encroachment of about 16 cents of land by the private builder, Artech Realtors. Considering a petition filed by CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan, the court on Thursday rejected the justifications cited by the Vigilance counsel for the delay in completing the quick verification. The court summoned the investigation officer DySP Ajith Kumar to appear before the court by afternoon and explain the reason for the delay.
While the Vigilance maintained that it could not register a case since the Lok Ayukta was also already considering the matter, counsel for Mr. Achuthanandan produced a legal opinion given by the Advocate-General that a case could be registered. Mr Achuthanandan’s counsel also presented documents in support of the allegations countering the Vigilance view that those documents were with the Lok Ayukta.
Subsequently, the court directed the Vigilance to submit the quick verification report without fail within two weeks, before February 23. The court also warned the Vigilance official of action in case of further failure to file the report. Mr Achuthanandan had urged in the petition filed in 2015 that a case should be registered against Mr. Chandy, then revenue minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, E.K. Bharat Bhushan, former KWA MD Ashok Kumar Singh, senior revenue department official T.V. Vijaya Kumar and managing director, Artech Realtors Ltd, T.S. Ashok, for facilitating the encroachment.
Confirming the land encroachment, the Lok Ayukta in March 2016 had ordered to take over 12.279 cents of land illegally possessed by the private builder. It may be recalled that a Lok Ayukta-appointed special investigation team led by present Vigilance chief Jacob Thomas, who was the then ADGP Vigilance, had probed into the allegations during 2014-15 and submitted a report to the Lok Ayukta confirming the encroachment.
