Kerala vigilance court rejects plea for probe into bribery allegation against leader of Opposition

VD Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Assembly (Photo:SNS)


The Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court, on Thursday, rejected a petition seeking a vigilance probe into the allegations that Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan took a bribe of Rs 150 crore to sabotage the Silver Line project.

Kawadiar native and LDF activist Hafiz filed the petition based on allegations made by PV Anwar MLA in the Assembly. The petitioner sought a vigilance inquiry against VD Satheesan based on the allegations raised by PV Anwar in the Assembly.

Rejecting the petition, the court said the petitioner failed to produce proof to substantiate the allegations stated in his petition.

CPI-M-backed Independent MLA PV Anvar accused the Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan of receiving Rs 150 crore from inter-state IT firms to sabotage Kerala’s Silverline (K-Rail) semi-high-speed rail corridor.

The Nilambur MLA told the Kerala Assembly that the said companies were concerned about the SilverLine boost enabling Kerala to emerge as a major IT player in the country. If the table this turned in favour of Kerala, the investments and infrastructure built in other states by these firms will become useless. Thus they wanted to sabotage the K-Rail project to stall Kerala’s rise in the IT sector.

Anvar alleged that after container trucks carrying Rs 50 crore each reached Thrissur, ambulances were used to take them to the Congress leader’s friends.