The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has to establish illicit cash flow, if any, to proceed further against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders accused of having accepted bribes from a businessman to facilitate Medical Council of India (MCI) sanction for his private medical college to admit fresh students for the 2017-18 academic year.
The agency’s preliminary inquiry into the allegation raised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) activist Sukarno was far from over. However, the agency required more evidence to decide whether or not an offence has been revealed under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Any unlawful cash transfer, if unearthed, will be communicated as third party information to the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate for suitable action.
An internal party report that suggested certain BJP leaders had sought and received huge backhander payments from the businessman to get MCI approval is at the centre of the stormy political controversy that rocked the BJP in Kerala last month. The purported inquiry had concluded that the bribe, an estimated ₹5.6 crore, had been moved through hawala route to a powerful BJP lobbyist in New Delhi.
The report leaked to the media had caused an Opposition furore in the Parliament and landed a red-faced BJP in the centre of two potentially damaging anti-corruption inquiries, one by the Kerala Lok Ayukta and the other by the VACB, at home.
Investigators said the statements of the two BJP apparatchiks who conducted the enquiry largely matched the allegations raised in the “leaked report”.
However, the businessman’s statement contradicted the findings in the party report. He told the agency that he had paid a considerable sum as consultancy fee and not bribe. His college was yet to get MCI clearance. But the businessman has no complaint that he has been swindled, officials said.
Investigators said the BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan’s statement on the matter was ambiguous. Mr Rajasekharan’s stance was that he had not seen the report in full though he had sanctioned disciplinary action against certain leaders on the merit of its findings. Legal experts batting for the BJP said the Vigilance inquiry would not stand legal scrutiny because there is no loss to the State Government or any pecuniary gain for those holding public office.