Vigilance court orders fresh probe into Titanium scam

The court orders to complete the investigation in four months

A special vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram today ordered a re-investigation into the titanium pollution control plant scam.

The special judge while rejecting the report filed by the Vigilance department of the Kerala police, asked it to register fresh FIRs against 12 persons, including chief minister Oommen Chandy, home minister Ramesh Chennithala, public works department minister V K Ibrahimkunju and former industries secretary T Balakrishnan. The court ordered to complete the investigation in four months.

S Jayan, a former employee of Travancore Titanium Products Limited, a state-owned company, had filed a case in the court alleging that the state had lost Rs 200 crore in the deal for setting up a pollution control plant with a company called Grantex and in buying equipment for the plant.

In its preliminary report the Vigilance stated there were misappropriations in the purchase of the equipment, but no evidence was found against the chief minister, ministers and other officials. Hence, it sought permission from the court to wind up the case. The special Judge while rejecting this, ordered to re-investigate as there was alleged political involvement in the case.

In 2005, the Left Front had alleged that Chandy went out of his way to implement the Rs 256-crore pollution control project and that it allegedly caused a loss of Rs 62 crore to the exchequer.

The Opposition cited three letters written by Chandy as chief minister in 2005 to the head of the Supreme Court-appointed pollution monitoring panel. These letters requested that the titanium plant should not be closed and that a pollution control project would soon be implemented. This was even before the Cabinet cleared the proposal.

As part of the project, pollution control machinery worth Rs 62 crore was imported in 2006. But it is still lying unused in the titanium factory compound. The Vigilance department said the loss to exchequer could be compensated by selling the machinery. K K Ramachandran, then health minister had resigned and alleged there was a strong pressure on him to take a stand in favour of the plant. He also alleged he was stripped of the pollution control portfolio, which was given to A Sujanapal, another minister in the Cabinet.

In the light of the latest court order, the Opposition parties have pressed the demand for the resignation of the chief minister. But leaders of the Congress said there was no need for the resignation as the court had not mentioned any involvement of the chief minister and other ministers, but only ordered a re-investigation.