Why Prasanth’s brother-in-law is a person of interest in the case

Kasaragod: The Kannur city police, investigating the suicide of Kannur additional district magistrate Naveen Babu K, on ​​Friday questioned AK Rajeesh, the brother-in-law of TV Prashanth, who accused the late official of taking a bribe to broadcast a no-objection certificate (NoC) for your fuel station. Rajeesh (44), a native of Thimiri in Kannur’s Alakode panchayat, had earlier filed multiple complaints against the then Kasaragod ADM Devidas N alleging that he had accepted a bribe to grant a NoC for a fuel outlet. The complaint was similar to the one Prasanth allegedly submitted to the Chief Minister against Naveen Babu.

Rajeesh also operates a fuel station without a Bharat Petroleum license in Kasaragod district, according to revenue and police officials. The shop named AK Group Fuels petrol pump is located at Odayamchal on Kanhangad-Panathur state highway in Kasaragod. The business license of the fuel station issued by the panchayat expired on March 31, 2022, said the deputy secretary of Kodom-Belur grama panchayat, a CPM stronghold. “The panchayat has sent notices to the petrol station but it has not even applied for renewal,” the official said.

The panchayat authorities did not take any action to stop the operations despite knowing that the establishment was functioning without the mandatory business licence. The police department conducted a discreet inspection of the Rajeesh gas station after Naveen Babu took his life on October 15, 2023. “We have given a report to the superiors saying that the fuel station does not have a functional toilet or a panchayat licence,” said a police officer.

In 2018, Rajeesh filed a complaint against the then Kasaragod ADM, Devidas N, accusing him of taking a bribe to issue an NOC for a Hindustan Petroleum fuel station at Parappally, on the same state highway, 9.3 km from his own pump in Odayanchal. In his complaint, Rajeesh claimed that there was government land between the road and the land where the proposed fuel station would be built. He also claimed that the plot had originally been allotted to a member of the Scheduled Tribes community and could not legally be used for commercial purposes, and lodged another complaint with the Kerala State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

At the time these allegations surfaced, Devidas was about to receive the IAS. The complaint almost cost him his promotion to IAS officer.

“The government has to send its recommendations. I cannot say whether the complaints were the reason for the delay, but it may be a reason,” Devidas, who is now Kollam Collector, told Onmanorama. Devidas handed over the NoC to fuel station Hindustan Petroleum on the condition that it lease land from the government to access the highway. “The NoC becomes such only if the condition is fulfilled,” he said.

Officials said the blocking or prohibition period for using lands allocated to tribes for commercial purposes is 12 years. Since that particular plot was allotted in the 1980s, the lock-in period has passed, they said. “Also, the sub-collector’s job was to check the nature of the land,” an official said. The government launched an investigation into Rajeesh’s complaints and cleared Devidas of all allegations.

In 2021, he received IAS from the 2018 select list. According to a 2010 court petition filed by Rajeesh in the Kerala High Court, he is also a distributor of Hindustan Petroleum. On October 5, 2010, he moved the High Court challenging Hindustan Petroleum’s notification granting him a new outlet near his fuel station. Five years later, on May 28, 2015, Justice K Vinod Chandran dismissed the petition saying it had no locus standi or legal locus. right to file a claim in court.

Several calls made to Rajeesh went unanswered. He also did not respond to questions sent by WhatsApp to his number. Onmanorma asked him why the police found him a person of interest in the investigation into the ADM’s death; if I were an investor in Prashanthan gas station; and why he had not renewed the license of his petrol station in Kasaragod.

A DYFI leader in Odayanchal said there were also problems with drainage in front of the fuel station. “Rajeesh often claimed to be a family friend of Govindan ‘mash’ and told us to contact him if we needed anything done,” the leader said, referring to CPM State Secretary MV Govindan. When asked if Rajeesh was simply naming names, the DYFI leader insisted otherwise. “They’re actually family friends,” he said.

A senior official of the Kasaragod Collectorate also endorsed it. “Rajeesh’s mother is a leader of the CPM’s women’s wing and they are close to Govindan,” he said. The police had booked former Kannur district Panchayat president PP Divya for abetting Naveen Babu’s suicide after she hinted that he had taken bribes to issue a NoC for the fuel station. After that, he resigned from his position and approached the court seeking anticipatory bail. Soon after Naveen Babu’s death, Prashanthan publicly said that he had given Rs 98,500 to the ADM for the NoC. He reiterated the allegations to police in his statement.