An anti-corruption court here has exonerated Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) R. Sreekekha of any malpractice when she was State Transport Commissioner (STC) during the 2014-15 period.
Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge D. Ajith Kumar accepted the argument of C.C. Augustine, Legal Advisor, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), that an exploratory probe by the agency had revealed no evidence to indict the ranking officer for corruption, criminal misconduct or abuse of official position during her watch as STC, Kerala.
The court also accepted Mr. Augustine’s argument that there was no proof to prosecute Chief Secretary S. M. Vijayanand on the suspicion that he had shielded Ms. Sreelekha from an anti-corruption inquiry recommended by ADGP Tomin J. Thachankary who had succeeded her as STC.
Thachankary blamed
In her statement to the VACB, which is an integral part of the quick verification report the agency submitted in court, Ms. Sreelekha portrayed herself as a victim of “29 years of harassment” by Mr. Thachankary, her “batchmate and two ranks junior.” She alleged that Mr. Thachankary was the wellspring of the false imputations against her.
She had obtained an order to sue Mr. Thachankary for defamation but desisted from doing so because “he had apologised and promised never to harass her.”
She deposed that the complaint filed against her mirrored most of the insinuations Mr. Thachankary had raised against her in his contentious internal report around which the entire controversy revolved.
Ms. Sreelekha stated that Mr. Thachankary had wrongly depicted audit objections as allegations of corruption. She had initiated the audit of the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) in the first place.