Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MLAs flayed Kerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan for permitting a Vigilance probe against Azhikode MLA K M Shaji. They alleged that all Supreme Court guidelines were violated with the order.
In a rare public outburst against the Speaker, MLAs V D Satheesan, Shafi Parambil, Sunny Joseph, Roji M John, K S Sabarinadhan, A P Anilkumar and Anwar Sadath criticised the move.
The MLAs alleged that this was no fair decision. Public representatives and government officials are undertaking many works at a time. Many complaints would surface against them due to revenge and political influence. However, the Speaker should permit probe into such petitions only after detailed study, they said in a statement.
Now, the Speaker has allowed an undersecretary-rank official to take Vigilance case against Shaji, they further alleged.
Assembly session was dispersed on March 13 due to COVID-19. Speaker had approved a Vigilance probe then. But, he didn’t even show the decency to convey this message to Shaji officially, they said.
The inquiry is mooted based on a bribery allegation of Rs 25 lakh that Shaji allegedly accepted for approving higher secondary course at Azhikode high school.