In a bid to send out a strong message the Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajashekharan has removed State Secretary, VV Rajesh and Yuvamorcha State General Secretary, Praful Krishna from their official posts following directives from the party central leadership.
Action was taken against Rajesh in connection with leaking an internal party report on the medical college scam to the media. Praful was removed for disclosing information on counterfeit party receipts allegedly used for fund collection in connection with the party national executive meeting in Kozhikode.
The Times of India reported that Kummanam directly informed the leaders regarding this action. “Discussions leading to the action have come out of the communication between Kummanam and the central leadership. Not even the members of the party core committee was aware of such a move,” ToI quotes a source inside the party.
There are reports that action will also be taken against BJP leaders K P Sreesan (State General Secretary) and A M Nazeer (State Secretary), who conducted the internal enquiry regarding the scam, for failing to maintain the secrecy of the report.
The medical college scam and forceful collection of money for BJP funds had created a huge controversy and the party faced a lot of flak for it.
The Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau served notices on Monday to the state BJP chief Kummanam Rajashekharan and a Delhi-based middle man, Satish Nair with regard to the scam.
It all began when R Shaji, Chairman of the SR Educational and Charitable Trust complained to the party that he had paid Rs 5.6 crore to RS Vinod, the former BJP Convenor of the Cooperation Cell, to obtain Medical Council of India (MCI) sanction for his medical college. He also said that Vinod later handed over the money to Satish Nair.
In the internal enquiry report by Sreesan and Nazeer, it was found that the money had indeed changed hands. However, the issue only turned into a controversy for the BJP when the report of the enquiry conducted in May, was leaked to the media in July.