THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP is heaving a sigh of relief with the vigilance contemplating to close the probe on the medical college scam. But that is unlikely to help them regain the lost confidence of their central leadership. A section wants R. S. Vinod, the expelled cooperative cell convener, to be be brought back. Initially, they had taken the vigilance probe lightly and offered to cooperate with it. But later on, they made a retreat as they got a legal advice that it will not come in their favour. But later, all the BJP leaders including state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, vice-president, K. P. Sreesan and secretary A. M. Nazeer feigned ignorance about the scam before the probe team.
A senior party leader told DC that Mr Rajasekharan got legal advice from former state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai. He reportedly informed him that once the FIR is registered, then things would not be in their favour. “P. Kannadas, the private secretary of Richard Hay, Rajya Sabha MP, had helped R. Shaji, chairman of S. R. Medical College and Research Centre in getting recognition from the Medical Council of India,” said a senior leader. “Whatever be the nature of the allegations, it is definitely against four or five persons, also involving BJP leaders. In fact, one among them is Mr Kannadas, a government official holding office of profit.”
In his testimony before the BJP’s internal commission led by Mr Sreesan and Mr Nazeer, Mr Vinod had said that Rakesh Sivaraman, the private secretary to Mr Rajasekharan, and Mr Kannadas had demanded Rs 15 lakh each. The BJP's internal report had said that Mr Shaji had given a bribe of Rs 5.6 crore to Mr Vinod. Accordingly, he expelled him a day after the scam snowballed. Mr Vinod deposed before the vigilance special investigation unit-II that he had accepted the money as part of his consultancy business and the BJP had no role in it. “The state leadership has lost its face in public. It will take some time for us to regain it, hopefully by the time Mr Rajasekharan launches his Janaraksha Yatra on Oct 3 with Amit Shah attending it on Oct 3,” said a former state president.
