Kerala PRD director under scanner

Senior Kerala government officer A Feroz has come under the scanner for his alleged connection in a financial cheating case involving Saritha Nair, arrested in the Solar scam.
Information and Public Relations Secretary has been asked to enquire into the allegation against the Public Relations Department Director and submit the report by tomorrow, state Information minister K C Joseph told reporters here today.
Further action against Feroz would be taken on the basis of the report, Joseph said.
"The previous LDF government suppressed a file containing the criminal background of Feroz," he alleged.
Medical College police station here had registered a case in 2009 against Feroz along with Saritha Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan (her accomplice in the solar panel scam) for cheating a person of Rs 40.2 lakh.

A report on Feroz's involvement in the case was given to the government (general administration department) in November 2010 by then City Police Commissioner. The LDF government suppressed the file containing the report and promoted him as Additional Director PRD Electronic Media Division, Joseph alleged.

After UDF government came to power, Feroz was promoted as Director PRD without knowing his background, Joseph said.
Now the file containing the track record of Feroz has been recovered after the scam involving Saritha surfaced, he said, adding, "Feroz was promoted as per service rules when a vacancy for the post of director came."

The prime accused in the Solar case Biju Radhakrishnan was arrested yesterday, while Saritha is already in police custody. The scam snowballed into a political issue after two personal staff Chief Minister Oommen Chandy were allegedly found to have made frequent phone calls to Saritha. They were removed from the CMO and a special police team constituted to probe deals of the company and its links with bigwigs.
Opposition CPI(M)-led LDF has stepped protests demanding Chandy's resignation, while the latter has rejected it.