Congress flays Kerala govt move to clear former min Jayarajan

Opposition Congress-led UDF today came out against the LDF government's move to close the vigilance case against CPI-M leader and former minister E P Jayarajan for allegedly appointing his relatives in key posts in state Public Sector Undertakings.
Criticising the government move, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ramesh Chennithala said the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau was giving a clean chit to Jayarajan in a case where CPI-M itself had found him guilty and removed from the post of Industries Minister.
CPI-M State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan himself had said that Jayarajan had admitted his mistake at a party meeting, Chennithala said while reacting to reports that the VACB has received legal advice to close the case against Jayarajan in view of "lack of evidence."

However, in the same case, the state government had used Vigilance to give him clean chit, he added.
According to Vigilance sources, the report for closure of the case against Jayarajan has not been filed in the court.
"Only legal advise in this regard has been given," they said.

Reacting to the development, Jayarajan said that he has not thought of coming back to the ministry.
He also maintained that he had not done anything illegal.
Jayarajan had courted controversy over the appointment of his nephew, P K Sudheer Nambiar and son of Kannur MP P K Sreemathi as the Managing Director of Kerala Industrial Enterprises Ltd.

However, the appointment was cancelled after it triggered a row in October 2016, just over 140 days after the CPI-M led LDF government came into power.