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Kerala ex-chief secretary sent to prison

D Jose in Trivandrum

Former Kerala chief secretary R Ramachandran Nair was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 in a corruption case by a vigilance special court in Trivandrum on Tuesday.

Nair is the first chief secretary of the state, and possibly in the country, to be convicted thus.

The conviction by Vigilance Special Judge N K Balakrishnan came in a case relating to the purchase of land for the Kalady Sree Sankara Sanskrit University while he held additional charge as vice-chancellor of the university in 1994.

The prosecution case against him was that he had caused a loss of Rs 3.4 million to the university by purchasing 75 cents of land at an exorbitant rate from the Vidyadhiraja Vidya Samajam, a private organisation founded by him.

The secretary of the samajam, V N Krishna Pillai, has also been sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment.

Samajam president R Kumaran Nair, elder brother of Ramachandran Nair, was, however, acquitted.

The former chief secretary, who will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one more year in case he does not pay the fine, said he would go in appeal.

He has already been granted bail by the court to appeal against its verdict.

Ramachandran Nair said the special court's verdict was not final and there are higher courts for correcting the 'mistakes' of lower courts.

The verdict in the case was to be passed on December 22. But the judge adjourned it to January 2 as Ramachandran Nair had taken ill and was admitted to a hospital.

The vigilance chargesheet against Ramachandran Nair was that as vice-chancellor of the university, he had allowed the purchase of land at a rate of Rs 50,000 per cent, though the market rate as assessed by the revenue authorities then was only Rs 5,650. The samajam had purchased the land only six months earlier at the rate of Rs 3,000 per cent.

The case was referred to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau soon after the Left Democratic Front government led by the Communist Party of India, Marxist, came to power.

Ramachandran Nair, who had proceeded on leave following the assumption of office by the LDF government in May 1996, was suspended while on leave. He retired later in April 1997.

The case came up when Ramachandran Nair's name was being considered by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre for the post of Cabinet secretary. A 1961 batch IAS officer, Ramachandran Nair was among the three contenders for the coveted post.

This was just one of four cases pending against Nair. Two similar cases relating to the purchase of land for the university centres at Calicut and Palghat and another regarding missing files during his term as chief secretary are also pending.

The former chief secretary alleged that the case was foisted on him by his successor C P Nair in connivance with the government to stall his promotion.

He said the price at which the land was purchased was competitive and there were parties willing to purchase the land now by paying a higher price.

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