The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) on Monday questioned BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan as part of its preliminary probe into the allegation that certain members of his party had sought and received backhander payments from a private medical college to facilitate Medical Council of India (MCI) sanction to intake fresh students for the 2016-17 academic year.
Officials said investigators reportedly asked Mr. Rajasekharan whether he was privy to a purportedly incriminating party inquiry report that named the functionaries who had received the alleged bribe. The details of the interview remained largely secret. The VACB also recorded his statement.
The agency is likely to subpoena the purported report to further its inquiry. The internal party report, which was widely leaked to the media last month, had put the State unit of the BJP on the defence.
It caused an Opposition furore in Parliament and saw the BJP in the centre of two potentially damaging anti-corruption enquiries, one by the Kerala Lok Ayukta and the other by the VACB, at home. The alleged bribe was moved through the hawala route to a powerful lobbyist in New Delhi.
The VACB was likely to summon more BJP leaders in the coming days. Former municipal councillor of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sukarno is the de-facto complainant in the case. He has BJP State general secretary M.T. Ramesh and the party’s cooperation cell convener R.S. Vinod as respondents.
After deposing before the VACB personnel, Mr. Rajasekharan told reporters that he had not seen the inquiry report prepared by the two-member party commission. The office secretary had seen the preliminary report. This was a case linked to an individual. He conducted a personal inquiry on the basis of a complaint he had received on the scam. The scam had nothing to do with the party, he said.
Mr. Rajsekharan clarified that he had not got any complaint against general secretary M.T. Ramesh and on getting a complaint, he would look into it. The disciplinary action initiated against secretary V.V. Rajesh was for ant-party activities, he said.
