Muvattupuzha: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has sought the custody of TO Sooraj, former secretary of the Public Works Department (PWD), and three others arrested on Friday over irregularities in the construction of Palarivattom overbridge.
Vigilance Ernakulam Unit DYSP R Ashok Kumar submitted a plea for their four-day custody before the court. It will be considered on Monday when the accused’s bail plea comes up.
The accused embezzled public wealth. Their custody is required to get to the root of the act and everyone else involved, the plea stated.
The Kerala Road Fund Board finds money to build roads from the Re 1 cess on petroleum products and the common man pays it. The men who embezzled it are powerful enough to influence witnesses. Hence it is important to collect all relevant information from them as soon as possible. This will also help establish the money trail and find more people involved, the plea further stated.
The others arrested over the irregularities are Sumit Goel, the projects MD of the construction company RDX; Benny Paul, former MD of the technical consultancy organisation KITCO; and P D Thankachan, the assistant general manager of the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala Ltd (RBDCK).
The probe officers had earlier submitted the First Information Report (FIR) in this case at the Muvattupuzha Vigilance court. The Vigilance suspect the involvement of 17 people in the irregularities and the report stated that their role in the scam would be clear only after a detailed probe.
Others named in the report are: KITCO former MD Cyriac David, senior consultant at Nagesh Consultancy Manjunath, RBDCK former MD Mohammed Hanish, KITCO joint general manager G Pramod, KITCO senior consultants Bhama and Shalimar, KITCO manager P M Yusuf, senior consultant Santhosh, project engineer Sanjo K Jose, Jijesh, RBDCK former manager P S Mohammed Naufal, Sharath S Kumar, RDX additional general manager Jai Paul, and site manager John.
The scam ultimately resulted in shoddy construction of bridge in the heart of Kochi.
