The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has registered a case against Sulthan Bathery MLA and former Congress district president IC Balakrishnan, in connection with the investigation into alleged bribery linked to the Wayanad Cooperative Bank. The bribery probe began following the tragic suicide of District Congress Committee (DCC) treasurer NM Vijayan and his son, Jijesh.
The Vigilance team, led by DySP Shaji Varghese, registered a First Information Report (FIR) after completing a preliminary investigation. Over the past few months, the team had collected complaints from various individuals, letters, the suicide note left by the late NM Vijayan, and recorded statements from complainants and witnesses.
The probe centres on financial irregularities raised by NM Vijayan in his suicide note and the specific role of IC Balakrishnan in the transactions carried out while he was the DCC president. As IC Balakrishnan is a Member of the Legislative Assembly, permission was secured from the VACB Director before the FIR was registered.
NM Vijayan allegedly took his life due to mounting debts, having pledged his land documents to obtain large loans to finance the party machinery in the district. The Congress party recently settled an amount of ₹58.23 lakh to secure the release of his land title documents from the Sulthan Bathery Urban Cooperative Bank. The case against IC Balakrishnan is specifically linked to allegations of him accepting a bribe for a job at the Congress-controlled Sulthan Bathery Cooperative Urban Bank.
According to Vijayan's suicide note, he had received the bribe on behalf of IC Balakrishnan, then the DCC president, who had promised jobs to individuals for anticipated posts at the cooperative bank. In an earlier letter to the KPCC president, NM Vijayan had demanded intervention to ensure that those who had paid the advance amount as a bribe were indeed given the promised jobs.
The Vigilance team is considering complaints from multiple individuals, including Peter George, a retired school teacher from Ambalavayal. George claims he paid as much as ₹30 lakhs to NM Vijayan on the written assurance that the amount would be returned if the party failed to secure his son a job. Peter George has also circulated copies of this agreement to the media, police, and vigilance authorities.
When the allegations first surfaced, IC Balakrishnan claimed his name was deliberately included in the documents as part of a political conspiracy to damage his image. Vijayan and his son Jijesh were found in a critical condition after consuming poison at their home in Manichira on December 24. Though rushed to a private hospital and later transferred to Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, Vijayan sadly died on December 27.
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