Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the intelligence report about correspondents of three Malayalam newspapers having worked against the interests of the State in respect of inter-State water disputes with Tamil Nadu is unfounded.
Expressing regrets over the report against newspapers here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said that references against the newspapers were unfortunate. Chief Secretary E.K. Bharat Bhooshan had examined all aspects of the report as wanted by the editors of the newspapers. He had found that neither the correspondents of the newspapers had acted wrongly nor had they published anything detrimental to the interests of the State.
It had been alleged that the correspondents had received favours from a public relations officer of Tamil Nadu and that the officer had managed to leak documents and information from the Secretariat. The inquiry by the Chief Secretary showed that no document had been lost and that no criminal offence had been committed, Mr. Chandy said.
The Chief Minister said the intelligence report was intended to provide some pointers to the government. The government did not question the bona fides of the officers who filed the report. Intelligence reports are not always 100 per cent accurate.
Malayala Manorama Managing Editor Philip Mathew, Mathrubhumi Managing Editor P.V. Chandran, and Kerala Kaumudi Managing Director M.S. Ravi had approached the Chief Minister last Saturday demanding a probe into the allegations in the intelligence report filed by Additional Director-General of Police (Intelligence) T.P. Senkumar. Mr. Chandy had asked the Chief Secretary to inquire into the matter.
