Achuthanandan also has cases against him before Lok Ayukta

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan are both respondents in cases before Lok Ayukta.

This comes to light while the two are engaged in a debate whether there are 31 cases pending against Mr. Chandy

A search of the Lok Ayukta’s case history details by News and Views shows that there are cases not only against Mr. Chandy but also against Mr. Achuthanandan before the Ayukta. There is at least one case in which both Mr. Chandy and Achuthanandan are listed as respondents.

A search for keyword Achuthanandan brings up nine cases, seven of which have either been withdrawn or disposed of. One of the pending cases filed in 2011 lists Mr. Achuthanandan as Chief Minister and the other filed in 2012 lists him as former Chief Minister. In a separate case Mr. Achuthanandan is the second respondent with Mr. Chandy as the first respondent.

Search for Oommen Chandy by name brings up 17 cases in various stages. If you search for Chief Minister, the number of cases increases to 37.  Most of these are apparently not corruption cases, and Chief Minister is often named in his capacity as head of the government. Some of them, dating back to 2000 onwards, had been closed, dismissed or otherwise disposed of. Often the same petitioner is found to have filed more than one petition.

More than 20 of the petitions have been filed after the present government came to power. Besides the Chief Minister, some of the Ministers of Mr. Chandy’s Cabinet, and officials are respondents in some of those cases.

The Opposition Leader reiterated on Monday that there are 31 cases against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The Chief Minister had denied that pointing out that no FIR was pending against him in any police station. However, it was suggested that the cases mentioned by Mr. Achuthanandan were the ones before the Lok Ayukta.

Though the Upa Lok Ayukta had stated that there were no cases against Mr. Chandy before the Ayukta, the Lok Ayukta contradicted this while considering a case against Mr. Chandy regarding appointment of the daughter of a KPCC Officer bearer at the Regional Cancer Centre on Monday.