KOLLAM: A Vigilance team conducted raids at the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation head office here on Tuesday, a day after the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau registered an FIR accusing the former MD and chairman of corruption.
“The Vigilance team inspected the office and collected evidence and documents pertaining to the deals made by the accused. The investigation is progressing well,” Mr N. Jiji, Vigilance DySP of Kollam unit in charge of the investigation, told this newspaper.
The Vigilance is looking into the corrupt deals made by tainted officials, including former chairman R. Chandrasekharan and former MD K.A. Ratheesh, the first and second accused respectively in the FIR submitted by the Vigilance. The case was registered following a quick verification report submitted by the Crime Branch nearly seven months back.
Mr Jaimon Joseph, owner of the controversial cashew trading company JMJ Traders, is the third accused and Mr Bhuvanachandran Nair, Kollam branch manager of cashew quality testing agency, the fourth accused. The corporation had in 2015 purchased 2000 tonnes of raw cashew from Guinea Bissau from Rs. 30 crore allotted by the government after Mr Chandrasekharan staged a protest in front of the secretariat.
With this money, the KSCDC allegedly entered into a deal with the JMJ Cashews, the sole participant in the e-tender, in August 2015. The director board meeting on August 14 decided to purchase 2,000 tonnes of cashew of low quality having specifications, Outturn 53 pound and count 220, for a rate of Rs. 117.01 per kilogram for a total of 23.40 crore.
The Vigilance has registered case on a petition filed before the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance inquiry commission and special judge court by Kadakampally Manoj, who had worked for a CBI inquiry into the corruption.
