Prosecution uses three-fold umbrella metaphor to explain Palarivattom flyover scam

Kochi: The prosecution has used the metaphor of a ‘three-fold umbrella' to explain the involvement of the accused in the Palarivattom flyover scam.

The Vigilance depicted the first accused Sumit Goel as the leg of an umbrella and the others as the strings attached to that leg. When asked who formed the canopy (the fabric part of the umbrella), the Vigilance did not provide an answer. When the question was raised outside the court, the Vigilance indicated that it was a person in the upper echelons.

The first fold of the umbrella was the selection of the contractor, the second fold was the advance payment of Rs 8.25 crore to the contractor and the third fold was the failure of the contractors in maintaining quality to collect bribes.

The probe team found that when the bribe was guaranteed, the contract was awarded to RDS Projects in violation of the norms and instructions.

The vigilance court also pointed out that the procedures followed were not transparent. Irregularities were also found in the allocation of Rs 8.25 crore in advance to the contractor.

Former PWD minister V K Ebrahimkunj was arrested on the basis of the statements given by TO Sooraj, former PWD secretary, who was arrested on August 30, 2019. Sooraj said that he had only followed the instructions received from the ministerial level. He said he was relieved of duty before the piling of the bridge began. Despite finding faults in the design of the bridge, it had to be approved because of the minister’s interest, he said.

Omission of load test a political victory

Kochi: RDS Projects, the contractor for the bridge, had told the high court that the bridge had not weakened and that the problems with it could be fixed with repair works. It had also said that it would carry out the repair at its own cost.

It was demanded in the court that a load test be carried out on the bridge before it is demolished to determine if it is damaged or not.

The High Court, which considered similar petitions together, ordered a load test. The government approached the Supreme Court against this and obtained an order to demolish the bridge without conducting a load test, arguing that the cracks were more than the allowable limit for the test.

The list of accused:

Sumeet Goel, the managing director of the contract company RDS Projects

M T Thankachan, former additional general manager of Roadways and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK)

Benny Paul, the joint general manager of Kitco

Former public works secretary TO Suraj

Former Public Works Minister and current Kalamassery MLA VK Ebrahimkunj

Kitco designer Nisha Thankachi

Structural engineer MS Shalimar

HL Manjunath, a designer at Nagesh Consultancy who designed the bridge