Job fraud: Lok Ayukta opens police inquiry

MLA, ex-MP accused of duping job seeker

December 25, 2014 10:09 am | Updated 10:09 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram:

The Kerala Lok Ayukta on Wednesday opened a preliminary police inquest into the allegation that a former MP and a serving legislator, both of the Congress, defrauded a job seeker of Rs.22.22 lakh by promising him clerical employment in Southern Railways.

Judges Pius C. Kuriakose and K. P. Balachandran ordered H. Manjunath, District Police Chief, Palakkad, to inquire into what they termed “serious allegations of corruption” against M.P. Vincent, Ollur MLA, and Peethambara Kurup, ex-MP, Kollam.

The complainant, Shajan, said he ran a grocer’s shop and had paid the money to two persons, alleged to be intermediaries of the Congress politicians, to get his son, Sanish Sajan, a professional bodybuilder, a clerical job in Railways.

He named the mediators Shibu T. Balan of Nettayam and Jaimal Kumar of Lake City Resorts, Alappuzha. He said that on November 18, 2013, at the instance of Mr. Vincent, he stayed in room number 503, Periyar Block, MLA quarters. Mr. Vincent called him on phone and urged him to “bravely seal the deal” with Mr. Kurup.

Subsequently, he said he met Mr. Kurup at the “MP’s quarters.” He gave him his son’s certificates. He alleged that the MP, who claimed to be a Railway Board member, promised his son a job, provided Rs.25 lakh was paid to Mr. Balan.

Mr. Shajan submitted in court documents purportedly detailing the deposits he had made into the accounts of Mr. Balan’s relatives. He said the respondents in the case had introduced Mr. Jaimal Kumar to him as an “IAS officer in charge of Kochi metro.”

At their instance, he met Mr. Jaimal Kumar at a Kerala Tourism Development Corporation facility in Alappuzha on November 22, 2013, and paid him Rs.6 lakh. The job promised for his son never materialised, and the respondents in the case started “deliberately avoiding him” from March this year.

The complainant told the court that he realised he was conned when he learned belatedly that Mr. Jaimal Kumar was not a bureaucrat. The court will hear the case again on February 12, 2015.

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