Vigilance asked to probe against Oommen Chandy for nepotism during previous UDF regime in Kerala

A court on Friday ordered a preliminary vigilance probe against former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, five former ministers and three others on a complaint of alleged nepotism in appointments during the previous Congress-led UDF regime in Kerala.

The direction in this regard was issued by Vigilance court judge A Badharudeen on a private complaint, seeking an inquiry against UDF for alleged nepotism in appointments.

Besides Chandy, the court ordered a preliminary probe against K M Mani, K C Joseph, V S Shivakumar, Anoop Jacob and P K Jayalakshmi, M P Vincent, an MLA, and two former MLAs. The report has to be filed by February 6, 2017.

The complaint was filed after a similar case against former Industries minister E P Jayarajan, who had to resign in the wake of nepotism allegations against him for appointing close relatives in top positions in state PSUs came up before the court.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar and Joseph welcomed the probe, saying they would fully cooperate in the investigation. Joseph alleged that the complaint was filed to help some of those against whom nepotism charges had been levelled.