Kerala High Court Directs VACB To Wind Up Probe Against IAS Officer Biswanath Sinha Within 3 Months

The Kerala High Court recently directed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to complete further investigation into the corruption charges against Bishwanath Sinha, former managing director of the Kerala Cooperative Bank within 3 months

Justice R Narayana Pisharady issued the order while dismissing a petition filed by the officer challenging the Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court's order rejecting the final report for dropping the charges and directing the VACB to conduct further investigation.

Sinha is now the Principal Secretary of the Electronics and Information Technology Department. The allegation against him was that he and 11 other accused entered into a conspiracy and misused their official position and public office and diluted the routine procedure, by sanctioning a loan of 350 lakh to a firm, thereby causing loss to the bank.

Senior Advocate S Sreekumar under the instructions of Advocate Deepu Lal Mohan represented the bureaucrat in the matter.

The prosecution submitted that there was not even an application obtained from the company to which the loan was granted by the Bank. It also produced the letters sent by the petitioner to the senior manager of the bank insisting on the disbursement of the loan amount even without complying with the necessary formalities and even threatening disciplinary actions against the senior manager.

Special Public Prosecutor A Rajesh appeared on behalf of the VACB. 

The Vigilance Special Court had directed to conduct a further investigation into the matter and returned the final report filed by VACB seeking to close the case. The VACB's final report had suggested dropping further action on the ground that there was no scope for the successful prosecution of the accused.

The High Court observed that the Special Court had recorded its reasons to found that further investigation was required in the matter, and therefore could not find sufficient ground to interfere with the order.

For this reason, the Single Bench directed the VACB to conduct and complete the further investigation without waiting for any further approval of the competent authority under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Case Title: Bishwanath Sinha v. State of Kerala 

Click Here to Read the Order