Congress leader seeks reopening of 2006 corruption probe against CEC

Venugopal’s petition, submitted on October 2, claims that a previous state-led vigilance investigation into Kumar was shuttered prematurely without addressing serious allegations. Central to the complaint is the 2006 suicide of Lee See Ben, a Malaysian engineer working for the joint venture PATI-BEL on the Kerala State Transport Project. Venugopal alleges that suicide notes left by Lee explicitly detailed harassment and bribe demands linked to Kumar, who served as the project’s chief director at the time.

The complaint further alleges that government bills totaling roughly Rs 12–13 crore were withheld from the firm, creating financial distress. Beyond the specific circumstances of the engineer’s death, the petition accuses Kumar of bypassing standard procedures to favor selected contractors while overseeing public infrastructure funds. Venugopal maintains that his request for a fresh investigation is a matter of public accountability rather than political maneuvering, despite his own affiliation with the Congress party. These claims regarding Kumar’s tenure remain unverified, and the state government has yet to announce a formal response to the request for a reopened inquiry.