Clean chit for Thomas K Thomas in bribe controversy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NCP's party level investigation commission report has given a clean chit to Thomas K Thomas MLA in the defection bribery controversy. The report has been released amid allegations that the inquiry commission was appointed to protect Thomas.

The commission report accepts the arguments of Kovoor Kunjumon MLA. The investigation was based on the complaint received by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleging that Thomas had offered bribes to LDF MLAs Antony Raju and Kovoor Kunjumon to join NCP’s Ajit Pawar faction. Antony Raju had confirmed the bribe offer to the chief minister but Kovoor Kunjumon had denied it.

Kovoor Kunjumon had defended Thomas before the NCP's inquiry commission. Kunjumon's explanation was that Thomas had not made any such move and had not offered any bribe. He completely denied the allegations. The investigation commission submitted a report to NCP state president P C Chacko accepting the statements of Thomas and Kunjumon. The commission members are NCP state office bearers P M Suresh Babu, K R Rajan, Job Kattoor and Lathika Subhash. Meantime, Antony Raju did not cooperate with the commission. Antony Raju's stance is that he has no need to cooperate with the NCP commission from outside the party.