The Kerala Police on Monday appeared inclined to recommend a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (VACB) inquiry into the “back-door” appointment of gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh in the IT Department’s Space Park project.
The police had in August indicted Swapna for “fraudulently” gaining employment in Space Park by “faking” her academic qualification. The investigation had made little headway.
Nevertheless, a prefatory inquiry had reportedly revealed cognisable offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The purported malfeasances included suspicion of nepotism in Swapna’s appointment, an undue pecuniary advantage to the suspect, and corresponding loss to the exchequer.
Space Park had fixed Swapna’s salary at an estimated ₹1 lakh per month, and she had reportedly drawn roughly ₹20 lakh from the treasury via a private consultancy during her short tenure there.
The police are likely to move the government to transfer the case to the VACB. If so, top officials of Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL), the public sector entity that runs the Space Park project, will come under legal scrutiny for Swapna’s questionable posting.
The VACB will probe whether the KSITIL or the private placement consultancy it had contracted for such appointments had notified the job vacancy or fixed the requisite qualification as per government norm.
An anti-corruption probe might examine whether M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, had any role in Swapna’s posting.
A panel headed by Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta had indicated that Swapna’s employment in Space Park smacked of favouritism.
Mr. Mehta said in his report that Mr. Sivasankar had “referred to appoint a person (Swapna) who was working as secretary to the Consul General, UAE, to the post of operations manager/junior consultant for Space Park” project. He said Mr. Sivasankar’s “frequent contacts with a foreign consulate official” violated IAS conduct rules and the episode had “wider ramifications”.
The Opposition had repeatedly raised the issue of Swapna’s controversial posting as an insult to unemployed youth in the State and an example of how the government had outsourced recruitment to private agencies.
