In fresh trouble for Congress Kerala chief K Sudhakaran, the Vigilance  wing of the  Kerala Police have initiated a probe  into the financial sources of the senior Congress leader.

The Special Vigilance Cell in Kozhikode has started an inquiry into the financial sources of Sudhakaran on the basis of a complaint that he had amassed wealth disproportionate to his known source of income.

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It was Sudhakaran himself who revealed about the Vigilance probe against him, while speaking to media persons in New Delhi.

As a part of the enquiry, the vigilance wing has issued a notice to the principal of Kadachira High School in Kannur, where Sudhakaran’s wife Smitha worked as a teacher.

The principal has been asked to provide details of salary and other benefits drawn by Sudhakaran’s wife since 2001.

The complaint against Sudhakaran was filed by his former driver Prasanth Babu in 2021.

Prasanth had claimed that Sudhakaran had amassed huge wealth by means of corruption when he was the Forest Minister in AK Antony’s government.

The vigilance in 2021 itself had conducted a confidential verification of the complainant and the allegation he had raised.

However, the decision to initiate a preliminary enquiry was taken after the state government gave its nod recently.

Prasanth Babu had earlier claimed that he is well aware of Sudhakaran’s financial misdeeds.

In 2012, he had alleged Sudhakaran had pocketed money from the funds sourced for building the Congress office in Kannur.

The Crime branch wing of Kerala Police  had  earlier arraigned Sudhakaran as an accused in  a cheating case involving fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal.

The Crime branch had arrested Sudhakaran  in connection with the case last week. However, he was released on bail later based on the Kerala High Court directive.

The Kerala High Court has granted interim anticipatory bail for a period of two weeks to K Sudhakaran in the case.

The Pinarayi Vijayan government has been adopting a tough stand on complaints against Congress leaders, including Sudhakaran and Opposition Leader V D Satheesan.

The vigilance had recently launched a preliminary enquiry against Satheesan on the allegations of irregularities in collecting funds for his flood reconstruction programme.

The Opposition UDF accused the LDF government of witch-hunt in response to back-to-back allegations in the implementation of mega projects.