Malappuram: KP Basith, a former AISF leader and friend of the complainant in the bribery case involving personal staff of Kerala Health Minister Veena George, has testified that the corruption was brought to the notice of her office on August 17 itself. 

KP Basith has also released purported pictures of the day when the complainant visited the health minister’s office to lodge the complaint in person. He also informed that the incident was brought to the notice of the minister’s private secretary advocate K Sajeev, and the issue was supposedly discussed with a few other officials as well.

After realising that his friend Haridas had been cheated, Basith had tried to contact Akhil Mathew on several occasions. While Akhil, who is part of the personal staff of Veena George, chose not to respond, it was decided to lodge the complaint directly by visiting the minister’s office. Basith has also released a screenshot of the SMS he sent to Akhil.

According to Basith, he had explained the incident in detail to the minister's personal secretary K Sajeevan. Post their conversation, the complainant was asked to lodge a complaint by attaching the necessary proof. As per the instruction, a complaint was lodged via Email on September 4. Basith informed them that they had received a notification on September 13 stating that Haridas’s message had been received. Basith has now released the pictures of the complainant’s visit to the minister’s office on August 17 in which he can be seen talking to the people in the office.     

Ayush Mission clears the air

In a dramatic turn of events, Ayush Mission had claimed the mail being propagated in its name in connection with the scam to be supposedly fake. The mail id was also reportedly non-existent. The authorities also cleared the air saying that the appointment letter that the complainant had received was not official, they also cited that the logo on the letter was that of NHM and not Ayush Mission.

A look into the entire episode

Akhil Mathew, who is part of the personal staff of Kerala Health Minister Veena George, and Akhil Sajeev, former office secretary at CITU Pathanamthitta have been accused of accepting bribes from a person in the pretext of offering a government job to his daughter-in-law. The duo allegedly received money assuring the job of medical officer in the Homeo department, under the Ayush mission. 

It is known that the duo assured Malappuram native Haridas Master of procuring a job for his daughter-in-law prior to the end of the current government’s tenure. The duo demanded Rs 5 lakhs for the temporary appointment and Rs 10 lakhs for making the job permanent.      

As per the complainant, Haridas handed over a total of Rs 1 lakh to Akhil Mathew in cash near the health department office in Thiruvananthapuram. The mediator Akhil Sajeevan also received Rs 50,000 directly and another Rs 25,000 online, from Haridas. The complainant also said that Akhil Sajeev had approached them voluntarily assuring a job after his daughter-in-law submitted an application for the job at the health department. 

Haridas also accused that no action has been taken so far in the incident, despite giving a complaint to the health minister and the health department. Upon inquiry, the minister’s office denied allegations of Akhil Sajeev accepting bribes and also informed that the complaint had been handed over to the DGP.