The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged the State government to order an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the allegations against Public Works Secretary T.O. Sooraj of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.
BJP former national secretary P.K. Krishnadas said that here on Friday that a CBI probe was more appropriate than a State-level Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau inquiry as Mr. Sooraj was said to have acquired assets not only outside the State but the country too.
Truth behind the case Only a CBI inquiry would bring out the truth of his involvement when he was Industries Secretary during the previous regimes of both the United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front governments. Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Elamaram Karim were the Industries Minister during those periods, Mr. Krishnadas said. The BJP leader said that a separate inquiry should be ordered to find out whether the disproportionate wealth he had acquired had been utilised for terror-linked activities.
Mr. Sooraj was the Kozhikode Collector during the time of the violent incidents at Marad on May 2, 2003.
Mr. Krishnadas said that the Marad Inquiry Commission Thomas P. Joseph had indicted Mr. Sooraj for his failure in taking timely, preventive, and remedial action to prevent the violence at Marad. Nine fishermen were killed in the violence.