KOCHI, Oct 04: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Keralam on Sunday (October 4, 2026) sought to revive a 20-year-old corruption allegation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, when the Kerala cadre IAS official was the State’s Public Works Department (PWD) secretary, by ordering a preliminary enquiry by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB).
Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s office told The Hindu that the Minister had ordered VACB director, Manoj Abraham, to investigate the accusation that the persistent efforts to extort bribes from PAT-BEL consortium, an Indo-Malaysian construction company contracted to upgrade the Main Central Road under the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP), had caused inordinate delays and cost escalations, allegedly resulting in significant losses to the exchequer and also the suspected death by suicide of Lee See Been, the project’s Chief Engineer, in Kuala Lumpur, in November 2006.
|