Why is Prasanth’s brother-in-law a party to the case

Kasaragod: The Kannur city police, while investigating the suicide of Kannur Additional District Magistrate Naveen Babu K, on ​​Friday questioned AK Rajish, son-in-law of TV Prashanth, who accused the late official of accepting bribe for issuing a No Objection Certificate (NoC) for his gas station . Rajish (44), a native of Timiri in Alakode Kannur panchayat, had earlier lodged multiple complaints against the then Kasaragod ADM Devidas N, alleging that he had taken bribe to grant NoC for a fuel outlet. The complaint was similar to the one Prasanth allegedly filed with the Chief Minister against Naveen Babu.

Rajish also runs an unlicensed Bharat Petroleum petrol station in Kasaragod district, according to revenue and police records. An outlet called AK Group Fuels petrol pump is located at Odayamchal on Kanhangad-Panathur State Highway in Kasaragod. The license to trade the filling station issued by the panchayat has expired on March 31, 2022, said the assistant secretary of Kodom-Belur grama panchayat, a CPM bastion. “The panchayat has sent a notice to the filling station, but it has not even applied for an extension,” the official said.

The panchayat authorities did not take any action to stop the business despite the fact that the outlet was operating without a mandatory trading license. The police department conducted a covert search of Rajisha’s petrol station after Naveen Babu took his own life on October 15, 2023. “We have submitted a report to the authorities that the petrol station does not have a functional toilet or a panchayat licence,” said a police officer.

In 2018, Rajish filed a complaint against Devidas N, the then head of production management at Kasaragod, accusing him of accepting a bribe for issuing an NOC to a Hindustan Petroleum filling station at Parapalli, on the same state highway, 9.3 km from his own filling station in Odayanchali In his complaint, Rajish stated that there is government land between the highway and the plot where the gas station is planned to be constructed. He also argued that the plot was originally allotted to a member of the Scheduled Tribe community and could not legally be used for commercial purposes and filed another complaint with the Kerala Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

At the time these allegations surfaced, Devidas was on the verge of getting the IAS. The complaint almost cost him his promotion as an IAS officer.

“The government should send its recommendations. I cannot say whether the complaints were the reason for the delay, but it could be the reason,” Devidas, who is now Kollam Collector, told Onmanorama. Devidas gave the NoC to the Hindustan Petroleum fuel station on the condition that it would take government land on lease for access to the road. “A NoC becomes a NoC only if this condition is met,” he said.

Officials said the period of restriction or ban on using tribal land for commercial purposes is 12 years. Since this particular plot was earmarked in the 1980s, the lock-in period is over, they say. “Moreover, it was the sub-collector’s job to check the nature of the land,” the official said. The government launched an investigation into Rajish’s complaints and cleared Devidas of all charges.

He was awarded IAS in 2018 batch in 2021. According to a writ petition filed by Rajish in the Kerala High Court in 2010, he is also a dealer of Hindustan Petroleum. On October 5, 2010, he challenged in the High Court against Hindustan Petroleum’s notification of providing a new outlet near his gas station. Five years later, on 28 May 2015, Justice K. Vinod Chandran dismissed the petition, stating that he had neither standing nor standing to sue.

Several calls to Rajish went unheeded. He also did not respond to WhatsApp queries sent to his number. Onmanorma asked him why the police identified him as a person of interest in the ADM death investigation; if he was an investor in a petrol station in Prashantan; and why he did not renew the license of his filling station in Kasaragod.

The head of DYFI in Odayanchal said there was also a drainage problem in front of the petrol station. “Rajeesh often claimed to be a friend of Govindan’s ‘mash’ family and told us to approach him if we needed anything done,” the leader said, referring to CPM state secretary MV Govindan. When asked if Rajish had just given a name, the DYFI leader insisted otherwise. “They are really friends of the family,” he said.

A high-ranking official of the Kasaragod collector also vouched for this. “Rajeesh’s mother is the leader of the women’s wing of the CPM and they are close to Govindan,” he said. The police have booked former Kannur district panchayat president PP Divya for abetting Naveen Babu’s suicide after she hinted that he had taken bribes to issue NoCs for gas stations. After that, she resigned from her position and applied to the court for bail. Soon after Navin’s death, Babu Prashanthan publicly stated that he had given Rs 98,500 to ADM for the NoC. In his statement, he repeated those accusations by the police.