Only implemented cabinet decision: Thomson on palmolein case

Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson, who is an accused in the two-decade-old palmolein graft case, today said he had only implemented the cabinet decision as a "dutiful civil servant".
Thomson, who was then Managing Director of Kerala Civil Supplies Corporation, said though no charge-sheet had been framed against him in the 25-year-old case whose trial is yet to start, people and media had called him "accused" over these years.
"As a civil servant, what I could do was just to implement the decision taken by the cabinet. I did not do anything wrong," Thomson, who retired from service today, told reporters here during his farewell press meet.

The case relates to the import of palmolein at an inflated price from Malaysia by the then Congress-led UDF government in 1991-1992, allegedly causing a loss of Rs 2.32 crore to the state exchequer.
The scam took place when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was the Finance Minister in the government headed by late K Karunakaran.
Welcoming a recent Vigilance Court order acquitting two other government officials in the case, Thomson said he would bring this point to the notice of the Supreme Court where a case is pending against him in this regard.
A 1983 cadre IAS official from the state, Thomson also said there was no corruption charge against him in the case but the charge was only of "conspiracy".