Saseendran's kin seeks CBI inquiry into graft cases

Palakkad: The family members of the late V Saseendran, former company secretary of Malabar Cements Ltd, have urged chief minister Oommen Chandy to recommend a CBI inquiry into corruption cases in the public sector company.
Saseendran and two of his sons were found hanging under mysterious circumstances at their Kanjikode house here on January 24, 2011.
In a letter to Chandy on Wednesday, Saseendran's brother V Sanalkumar said the state government had earlier recommended a CBI inquiry into the mysterious deaths and corruption in Malabar Cements as both were interlinked."Saseendran was murdered after he questioned the corruption in the unit. No family should face such a tragedy in future. The CBI should probe the corruption cases too," he said.
Terming Saseendran as a victim of the "mafia that ran this public sector company, looting the exchequer with the connivance of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats", the letter noted that the high court had earlier directed a CBI probe into the matter. It noted that the vigilance department had also recommended a CBI inquiry into four corruption cases it probed. It said
more revelations about nexus among corrupt officials, contractors and politicians were coming out on a daily basis.
Sanalkumar said the post-mortem report had mentioned eight injuries, not normally found in a suicide case, on Saseendran's body. "This raised the suspicion of murder, to remove someone who had opposed fraud in purchase of raw materials like clinker, coal, fly ash and machinery, costing the company hundreds of crores of rupees," he said.