The Vigilance wing of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) that probed the allegations against the previous board comprising former president Prayar Gopalakrishnan and former member Ajay Tharayil is understood to have found that they are prima facie guilty of the charges levelled against them.
Board sources told The Hindu here that the vigilance wing had found serious discrepancies in the tour dairy and the minutes of 25 board meetings that were taken up by the inquiry officials. The preliminary inquiry was conducted on the basis of the minutes recorded by the TDB Secretary.
The inquiry officials are understood to have found that on those days when the board meeting was recorded to have been held, Mr. Gopalakrishnan and Mr. Ajay had travelled extensively. This mismatch in the tour details and the minutes had been detailed in the probe report, sources said.
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Incumbent president A. Padmakumar had engaged the board vigilance to hold the preliminary probe on the basis of reports that irregularities to the tune of ₹100 crore were detected during the tenure of the previous board.
The inquiry officials are understood to have found that the board had spent excessive sums than the budget allocation for civil works. The temporary appointments made by the previous board have been found not to be in order.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan and Mr. Ajay had emphatically denied the charges levelled against them and described the charges as politically motivated smear campaign unleashed by a section of the employees.
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On the basis of the preliminary inquiry, the vigilance wing is understood to have recommended a detailed Vigilance and Anti- Corruption Bureau (VACB) probe into all the allegations that had come up against the previous board.
The next board meeting is scheduled on December 5 and it would then recommend the State government for engage the VACB for a thorough probe into all the allegations, sources said.