Thiruvananthapuram: The blame game over
the CVC appointment fiasco refused to die down with the
surfacing of a letter on Thursday that the Kerala government wrote
to the Centre in 2006 saying it wanted to go ahead with the
graft case against PJ Thomas.
In the October 10, 2006 letter to the Secretary to the
Union Department of Personnel and Training, Additional Chief
Secretary Lizzy Jacob had wanted to be treated as withdrawn
the previous UDF Government`s decision to close the palm oil
import corruption case.
"I am directed to request the government of India to
treat the (state) Government letter with the request to
withdraw the proposal seeking sanction to prosecute PJ Thomas
and Jiji Thomson under Prevention of Corruption Act as
withdrawn and to accord sanction to prosecute Thomas and Jiji
Thomson as requested on December 31, 1999," the letter said.
The letter, copy of which was available to the media,
surfaced a day after Chief Minister VS Achuthandan hit back
at his Maharashtra counterpart Prithviraj Chavan, who was then
incharge of Department of Personnel and Training, for blaming
Kerala Government for the CVC appointment fiasco.
In a statement on Wednesday, Achuthanandan had accused
Chavan of "lying" on the issue to "hide" his fault.
The case refers to alleged corruption in import of
palmolein from Malaysia by the UDF government headed by late K
Karunakaran in 1991.
Thomas, whose appointment as Central Vigilance
Commissioner was set aside by Supreme Court recently, was the
Food Secretary at the time and Jiji Thomson MD of the state
civil supplies corporation.
In December 2006, when Congress leader Oommen Chandy
was the chief minister, the state government decided to close
the case. However, the decision was rescinded after
Achuthanandan became the chief minister in May 2006 as he had
vigorously pursued the case from the start.
Achuthanandan`s reaction came in response to Chavan`s
claim that the vigilance clearance for Thomas was given by
Kerala.
"Chavan should have kept the dignity of his post while
making such statements," Achuthanandan had said.
"DoPT had suggested three names, two retired
officers and one serving, for the post. One of them was
chief secretary in a state to be brought to Delhi. Vigilance
clearance is done by the state," Chavan had said on Tuesday.
Under attack over Thomas` appointment as CVC, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh had told the Rajya Sabha that he was
unaware of the corruption case against Thomas and virtually
blamed Chavan, saying key information was not provided.
PTI
