Kerala Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala has urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to quit ‘as he is also a partner in crime committed by former minister KT Jaleel who resigned days after the Lokayukta found that he was guilty of nepotism and had given a government appointment to a relative.
KT Jaleel, minister for Higher Education, Welfare of Minorities, Waqf and Hajj resigned on April 13.
In November 2018, the Muslim Youth League had filed a complaint against Jaleel alleging that rules were flouted to appoint his cousin, Adeeb KT, as the general manager in the Kerala State Minorities Development Finance Corporation.
The Lokayukta said that Jaleel has no moral right to continue in office as he has misused his powers and indulged in nepotism. The Lokayukta had asked Pinarayi to ask Jaleel to resign. Jaleel had approached the High Court to quash the Lokayukta order but resigned just before the case came up in court.
Chennithala said Pinarayi is also a partner in this 'crime' committed by Jaleel as it was in 2013 the then Congress-led United Democratic Front government through a cabinet decision had changed the qualifications for the post to which Jaleel appointed his relative.
"However, when Jaleel decided to appoint his relative, instead of taking the permission of the cabinet to alter the qualification requirements, he prevailed upon Pinarayi, who instead of taking the file to the cabinet, cleared it himself and hence he is also a partner in the crime and he has no moral right to continue in office," said Chennithala.
Following a huge protest inside and outside the assembly even though Jaleel vainly defended that the appointment was in order and also got the support of the CPI-M, but finally Adeeb quit the post and returned to his banking job.
It was PK Mohammed Shafi a resident of Jaleel's home district Malappuram who approached the Lokayukta against the posting.
"We now hear that the government is going to take this case to the Kerala High Court. It's really surprising to note that, on one hand this government speaks of morality and on the other, they do everything which is immoral," added Chennithala.
With IANS inputs