Close on the heels of Additional Director General of Police R. Sreelekha accusing Transport Commissioner Tomin J. Thachankary of instigating a person to file a complaint against her in the Thrissur Vigilance Court, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday ordered the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to produce a report of the preliminary inquiry, if any, conducted into the allegations levelled against her.
Justice P. Ubaid issued the directive on a writ petition filed by the senior IPS officer challenging the Vigilance Court directive to lodge an FIR and conduct an investigation into the allegations against her on a complaint filed by P.P. Johnson of Chalakkudy.
The allegation was that the Motor Vehicles Department had allowed conversion of old buses into educational institution buses, causing substantial loss to the exchequer by way of reduction in the motor vehicle tax. According to the complaint, this had happened when she was holding the post of Transport Commissioner.
According to her, the bus owners would often sell their old vehicles to educational institutions and transfer the ownership in the name of educational institution. This was permissible under the Motor Vehicles Act, Kerala Motor Vehicle Rules and Motor Vehicles Taxation Act.
Mr. Sreelekha said therefore, the allegations were without any basis. The complaint was unsustainable and filed without understanding the provisions of the motor vehicle Act and Rules. It was common that the second class buses purchased by the educational institutions got converted to educational buses. In fact, the Motor Vehicle Inspector and Deputy Transport Commissioner, central zone, had conducted an independent inquiry and found that the allegations were baseless.
She said that no cognisance offence could be made out from the complaint. The forwarding of the complaint by the Vigilance court to the police was abuse of process of the court. There was no illegality in the action of the contact carriage owners selling their obsolete buses and educational institutions purchasing those vehicles.
