Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Keralam on Sunday (October 4, 2026) sought to revive a 20-year-old corruption allegation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, when the Kerala cadre IAS official was the State’s Public Works Department (PWD) secretary, by ordering a preliminary enquiry by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB).
The move assumes political significance against the backdrop of the Congress’s national-level agitation seeking Mr. Gyanesh Kumar’s removal as CEC.
Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s office told The Hindu that the Minister had ordered VACB director, Manoj Abraham, to investigate the accusation that the persistent efforts to extort bribes from PAT-BEL consortium, an Indo-Malaysian construction company contracted to upgrade the Main Central Road under the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP), had caused inordinate delays and cost escalations, allegedly resulting in significant losses to the exchequer and also the suspected death by suicide of Lee See Been, the project’s Chief Engineer, in Kuala Lumpur, in November 2006. Notably, the previous UDF government had contracted the firm.
Officials said the Home Department has also sought the Crime Branch’s findings from its 2006 probe into the accusations, for legal opinion. Officials said Mr. Chennithala ordered the enquiry after Congress leader Malayankeezhu Venugopal filed a complaint.
They said Mr. Chennithala had also directed the VACB to re-examine the findings of an earlier vigilance enquiry ordered by then Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan after the Lee See Been controversy, which prompted the removal of Mr. Gyanesh Kumar as the State’s PWD secretary.
Mr. Venugopal, in his petition to Mr. Chennithala, had argued that the 2006 enquiries against Mr. Gyanesh Kumar circumvented due process and ignored the “incriminatory accusations” in Been’s purported note.
He also accused the then LDF dispensation of quietly scuttling the probe against Mr. Gyanesh Kumar and opening the door for the top bureaucrat to seek Central deputation.
Officials said the Keralam Home Department had also factored in the “damning findings” of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), who evaluated the initial phase of the MC road augmentation works when ordering the VACB enquiry.
They said the CAG had faulted the PWD for releasing significant interest-free advances to the PATI-BEL “without proper field audit of the road work’s progress”.
The CAG, they said, also blamed the PWD for administrative incompetence, inordinate delays in approving part bills, holding up road re-design proposals, and “dubiously” citing cost escalation to restructure the contract terms and agreement, allegedly in favour of the construction company.
Home department officials said the CAG had pegged the loss to the State treasury at an estimated ₹92 crores, laying the legal groundwork for a renewed anti-corruption enquiry.
(If you are in distress or having suicidal tendencies, please reach out to these helplines: TeleMANAS at 1-8008914416/ 14416, NIMHANS at 08026685948, 9480829670 or SAHAI at 080 25497777, +91-9886444075)
Published – October 04, 2026 11:52 am IST
