Kerala appointment bribery case: No money paid to Health Minister's PA, accused tells police

Thiruvanathapuram: Basith, one of the accused in bribery case against health minister's personal staff has been arrested by Thiruvananthapuram cantonment police on Tuesday( Oct 11). The arrest came after Haridasan, the complainant, reported that Basith had threatened him. The police arrested Basith from his residence in Malappuram.

During the interrogation, Basith also admitted that he did not pay money to Health Minister's PA Akhil Mathew in the appointment bribery scandal. He told the police that he mentioned the name of the minister's office to extort money from Haridasan and added the name of the minister's PA in the complaint. According to the officials Basith will be taken into custody tomorrow and questioned again. The officials also stated that Basith is the mastermind behind a conspiracy aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the health minister and their personal assistant. 

\The prime accused in the controversial appointment fraud case Akhil Sajeev, was nabbed from Theni in Tamil Nadu on October 6. He was nabbed by a police team from Pathanamthitta led by DySp Nandakumar.

As per FIR reports, Akhil Sajeev and his associates exhorted Rs 10 lakhs from Pathanamthitta native for job recruitment. The gang also took money from the district commission office of CITU Pathanamthitta. An appointment letter in the name of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) was given to the complainant for proof. He believed that the job offer as an accountant was right and signed the documents in the KIIFB office.

An allegation of bribery had surfaced involving the personal staff of Health Minister Veena George. The complaint alleged that Akhil Mathew, her personal staff, accepted a bribe of Rs 1 lakh in exchange for facilitating a doctor's appointment. According to the complaint, a middleman Akhil Sajeev was also involved in the transaction.