Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi | Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday said that "crime never dies", defending his decision to order a vigilance probe into allegations of corruption in a road project undertaken two decades ago, when CEC Gyanesh Kumar was the state's PWD secretary.
The minister was referring to the probe into alleged corruption in the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP), undertaken in 2006 when Kumar was serving as Public Works Department secretary.
In 2006, the KSTP undertook a World Bank-funded project worth Rs 215 crore to reconstruct the MC Road from Angamaly to Thiruvananthapuram.
PATI-BEL, a joint venture between a Malaysian firm and Bhageeratha Engineering, was awarded the project.
A Malaysian company carried out the work. Its project engineer, Lee See Been, allegedly raised several complaints during construction before returning to Malaysia, where he died by suicide.
Chennithala said that although the alleged irregularities dated back 20 years, "crime will never die".
"The vigilance is carrying out an extensive investigation, and it will soon reach a conclusion," he told reporters in New Delhi.
He alleged that Kumar had committed several wrongful acts, including the deletion of crores of voters from the electoral rolls, and said his resignation was therefore necessary.
Chennithala, who is in New Delhi to participate in protests demanding Kumar's resignation, described the agitations as "a second freedom movement".
He said the protests were necessary because the Election Commission had ignored complaints from people whose names were deleted from the electoral rolls, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah remained silent on the issue.
"The CEC is the one behind all this, and therefore, his resignation is necessary," Chennithala said.
Responding to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's call for the resignation of V D Satheesan over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Chennithala said Sarma should "lead by example".
"Let him resign first, and then we shall see," he said.
The minister said that if an election were held in Keralam now, the BJP would lose the three seats it currently holds.
He said there were widespread calls for the use of paper ballots in elections, as practised in a majority of countries worldwide.
"Only seven countries in the world use electronic voting machines," Chennithala said.
On the SIR process, Chennithala said he had never justified it, but had only pointed out that it provided an opportunity to eliminate duplicate and bogus entries.
He said the people of India had fought for independence and that the country was not a banana republic.
"Voting is their right. The removal of crores of voters from the electoral rolls is a move to sabotage democracy," he contended.