Thrissur, July 20 : Congress leader and leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala has called for a probe by the central bureau of investigation (CBI) into charges that BJP leaders in Kerala took bribes in exchange for procuring medical council of india (MCI) approval for private medical colleges in the state.
Addressing a press conference in Thrissur on Thursday, Chennithala said that he would write to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking a CBI probe into the bribery allegations.
In addition to the CBI probe, he also called for a parallel investigation by the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB).
The involvement of the central leadership in the scam should also be investigated, he said, drawing a comparison between the alleged scam and the VYAPAM scam in Madhya Pradesh.
The latest allegations against the BJP state leadership comes close on the heels of the arrest of a local functionary of the party in Kodungallur on the charge of printing counterfeit notes.
“With the Kodungallur fake note printing case and now the medical college scam, the BJP state leadership is engaging in largescale plunder under the aegis of the central leadership,” Chennithala said.
Chennithala also came down on BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, saying that the inaction on the part of latter despite having received a complaint on the bribery charge in June 2016 was suspicious.
Congress Kerala unit interim president M M Hassan echoed Chennithala’s demand for simultaneous probes by the CBI and the VACB into the alleged bribery scandal involving BJP leaders.
Speaking to reporters in Kannur, Hassan said that the BJP state leadership had accepted bribes promising to procure MCI sanctions for five private medical colleges in the state.
Hassan alleged that the scam was spread across the country with the BJP having accepted bribe to the tune of Rs. 400 crore in lieu of securing MCI sanctions for 70 medical colleges in the country.
Meanwhile, congress MP K C Venugopal - speaking to reporters in Delhi - called for a judicial probe into the alleged scam.
Saying that the issue was not just confined to Kerala, he pointed out that the bribe money was funnelled to Delhi through the hawala route.
A two-member internal committee report of the BJP Kerala unit has found that the party co-operative cell convenor R S Vinod had accepted bribe to the tune of Rs. 5.6 crore from S R Medical College based in Varkala for MCI sanction for the private medical college.
Even though the state leadership tried to brush the issue under the carpet, it snowballed into a controversy on Wednesday with the internal committee report getting leaked to the media.
