The senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader had to resign as industries minister after 142 days in office last year following a controversy over his appointment of his nephew and a close relative as heads of state-run enterprises.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), which accused him of nepotism, moved the high court seeking to withdraw the case saying it could not find grounds to prosecute him.
It said Jayarajan had cancelled the appointment before his relatives assumed office and they had not made any pecuniary benefits from it, and, hence, the issue would not come under jurisdiction of the VACB.
The court wondered why the bureau filed a case in the first place if it was not sure of defending it legally.
The court’s decision has now cleared the way for Jayarajan to return to the cabinet.
Jayarajan was under fire for doling out plum posts to his close relatives and cronies who lack prescribed educational qualifications and professional experience, including P K Sudheer Nambiar as the managing director of the Kerala State Industrial Enterprises.
Nambiar is the son of Jayarajan’s sister-in-law P K Sreemathy, who is also his colleague in the CPM central committee and is a member of the Lok Sabha.
She had to cancel the appointment of Nambiar’s wife as her aide when she was the health minister in the 2006-11 state government headed by V S Achuthanandan following public outrage.
Deepthi Nishad, the daughter-in-law of Jayarajan’s brother who was appointed the general manager of Kerala Clays and Ceramics, had also resigned following the controversy.
Jayarajan was at the centre of controversies ever since the CPM-led Left Democratic Front came to power with a massive mandate riding on a series of corruption allegations against the previous Congress-led government in May last year.
Within a month of assuming office, he replaced Sports Council chairperson Anju Bobby George accusing the ace athlete of corruption and nepotism with T P Dasan, a local party leader who was facing corruption charges during his previous tenure.
The then minister’s action also forced Anju’s brother Ajith Markose, a well-known international coach, to quit.
The court yesterday dismissed the appeals of Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and others for a probe under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
After his resignation in November, the CPM central committee member and one of the close confidants of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who was considered the No 2 in his cabinet, had accused the media of running a campaign against him.
“They (media) took money from the mafia after I stopped their corrupt deals,” he had told the Kerala Assembly, in reply to Chennithala’s demand for a discussion on the issue.
“I was working hard for the country, rooting out corruption. But the opposition was baying for my blood. There’s a big mafia behind them.”
Jayarajan had accused the former director of the VACB, Jacob Thomas, who is now heading the state’s training institute for bureaucrats, of trying to indict him disregarding the stand of his colleague.
