The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) on Thursday questioned Additional Chief Secretary (Labour and Skills) Tom Jose in connection with a wealth case registered against him in October.
The ranking bureaucrat was summoned to the agency’s Central Range Office in Ernakulam. Mr. Jose spend the better part of the day cooped up indoors with police investigators. The agency was tight-lipped about what exactly transpired.
However, a senior investigator privy to the legal procedure indicated that the enquiry against Mr. Jose had now turned into a full-fledged criminal investigation.
He said the chances of Mr. Jose being indicted for possessing assets disproportionate to his known and legitimate sources of income seemed high at “this juncture”. Mr. Jose had reportedly arrived at the police facility with documents to state his case in full.
In October, the VACB had its on its own registered a disproportionate assets case against Mr. Jose in an anti-corruption court in Ernakulam.
Immediately after, it raided premises believed to be owned by Mr. Jose and his alleged nominees in three districts for “evidence of ill-gotten wealth”. The outcome of the raid still remained murky.
Officials said the investigation against Mr. Jose centred around his questionable purchase of 50 acres of farmland in Maharashtra and procurement of magnesium for Kerala Metals and Metals Limited during the tenure of the previous Government.
The Vigilance had earlier told the court that Mr. Jose could not satisfactorily explain 62.35 per cent of the assets he had acquired over the years. Hence, there was sufficient legal ground to investigate him on the suspicion of corruption as a public servant.
Mr. Jose had, in the aftermath of the raids, termed the allegations as baseless. He also saw a hidden motive to denigrate him in public. The agency was also investigating former Excise Minister K. Babu on similar charges. In September, it had arrested Malabar Cements managing director K. Padmakumar on charges of illegally amassing wealth.
