CVC Thomas: Sushma Swaraj to move SC against govt?s ?unaware? plea

Opposition BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who was member of the panel that appointed tainted bureaucrat PJ Thomas as the CVC, on Thursday said she will approach the Supreme Court on the government?s contention that it was unaware of corruption charges against Thomas.

Maintaining that the government?s submission before the apex court that it did not know of the corruption slur on Thomas, Swaraj said, ?I personally brought this to the notice of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister… now I have decided to file an affidavit before the Supreme Court.?

Swaraj and her party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been protesting the appointment of Thomas as the country?s main watchdog on corruption.

Swaraj, being the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was a member of the three-member committee that appointed Thomas.

The Prime Minister headed the committee, with the Union Home minister as the other member.

Earlier on Thursday, the Central government pleaded ignorance regarding pending corruption cases against Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) PJ Thomas while appointing him to the post.

A SC bench, headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia, had earlier asked the government if the three-member panel, headed by the prime minister, was aware of the corruption case and prosecution sanction granted by Kerala government while appointing Thomas as the CVC.

Attorney General GE Vahanvati, appearing on behalf of the government, said that the government was not aware of these facts.

?It was not before the committee. The material pertaining to the sanction for prosecution under section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code was not before the committee. The bio-data did not reflect this aspect before the committee,? Vahanvati said.

The apex court bench, also comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar, had said: ?We are not going into the merits of the case. We want to know whether the material pertaining to charge sheet and the sanction were brought before the committee or not.

?We want to know whether relevant material was brought before the committee and whether these documents were brought were before it.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) had challenged Thomas? appointment as the CVC pointing to an oil import case against him, though Thomas has pleaded innocence in an affidavit before the Supreme Court.

In 1991-92, Thomas, as the Food Secretary in Kerala, had allegedly allowed the import of Palmolein or edible oil from Malaysia at prices higher than the market rate.

He also allegedly covered up the 2G Spectrum allocation scam as the Telecom Secretary.