P C George moves High Court against VS

KOCHI: Government Chief Whip P C George on Friday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a CBI probe into Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan’s role in awarding the contract  for the management of the State Data Centre (SDC) to Reliance Communications Ltd. George has sought a directive to the state to entrust the case, which is now being probed by the Vigilance Department, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).George submitted that the decision to hand over the management of SDC to Reliance was taken by the then Chief Minister Achuthanandan before the change in the government.He alleged that, as the data centre kept detailed information about all the government offices and officials, it was a big security risk that Achuthanandan had taken by handing it over to a private player.“The state government had ordered a Vigilance inquiry into the alleged corruption in the handing over of the SDC to Reliance. But the respondents in this case, including Achuthanandan, mediators T G Nandakumar of Ernakulam, and Mohan Sukumar (son of former Director-General of Prosecution Kallada Sukumaran), were highly influential. An unbiased investigation could not be expected from the state machinery,” he said. Besides, many of the current senior police and Vigilance officials in the state had been appointed by Achuthanandan when he was the Chief Minister.So the CBI would be the appropriate agency for conducting probe in the case. Some of the activities regarding this took place in foreign countries like Dubai, George submitted.The data centre was previously managed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The change came after the government agency - National Informatics Centre- expressed its unwillingness to host the state’s data. A CBI investigation is essential to find out the role of Achuthanandan, former director state IT Mission Retan Khelkar, former IT Department secretary Ajaykumar, T G Nandakumar and Mohan Sukumar, the then manager, IT Mission. George submitted that the appointment of Mohan Kumar with a monthly salary of `65,000 was made without inviting application from any other candidate, according to the order of Achuthanandan. The petitioner submitted that the bids made by C-DIT and KELTRON were not considered. Later, the bids were opened and the IT Department advised that TCS may be considered for the contract. But it was sabotaged by Achuthanandan and others.The petitioner said that efforts were being made at the instance of Achuthanandan to close the inquiry in the issue. So the petitioner sought a directive from the High Court to order the CBI to register a crime and conduct a detailed investigation on the roles played by the officials in the award of tender and to submit an inquiry report before the court within a specified time.Besides, the petitioner sought an interim relief from the High Court to direct the director of the Kerala State IT Mission to produce the entire files relating to the tender process.