Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Lokayukta on Monday began probing the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s alleged abuse of position by granting financial aid to ‘ineligible’ persons from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
Responding to a complaint filed by R. S. Sashikumar, a public interest litigant, a full bench of the Lokayukta decided to allow the plaint.
Lokayukta Pius C. Kuriakose and Upalokayukta K.P.Balachandran nodded in favour of admitting the plaint. However,Upalokayukta A.K. Basheer dissented.
Chief Minister and his Cabinet, Sushikumar submitted to the court, had diverted money in 2017 from CMDFR to aid the family of the late NCP leader Uzhavoor Vijayan.
He used emergency funds to write off the debts of the late CPI(M) legislator K.K. Ramachandran and aid the family of Praveen, a police officer who died while escorting CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
R. S. Sashikumar requested the court to disqualify Chief Minister if found guilty of what he said political favouritism.
A majority decision by Lokayukta treated the complaint as a maintainable and issued notices to the Chief Minister and his Cabinet members.
Admitting the petition, the Lokayukta stressed that it had not found any party guilty of any allegations.