Progress made in Kerala forgery case

The Kerala police, which is distinctly feeling upbeat as the document forgery incident that sought to implicate state Tourism Minister K.V. Thomas in a Rs3.36 billion hawala deal, appears drawing to a conclusion.

But the Crime Branch officers came in for some stick from the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Muraleedharan yesterday, who said it was not a good thing for police to "call press conferences and announce things said by those in custody".

Superintendent of Police K. Natarajan had held a press conference here on Thursday, giving details to media persons about the confessions that are said to have been made by Thaniniram reporter R. Jayachandran.

Congress party MLA Shobhana George had also been arrested in the case, which gave a serious dimension to the entire episode.

Natarajan said that the forged intelligence document attempting to implicate Thomas was delivered to the Surya TV office for broadcast in a sealed cover on June 24 by one Praveen, one of Jayachandran's friends.

Police are probing the antecedents of Praveen who has figured as accused in some crime cases registered at Neyyattinkara and Vellarada in Thiruvananthapuram district.

The KPCC president chided the police officials for going to press with the details of their investigations, stating that it was against propriety.

Inaugurating the leadership training camp for Congressmen in the district, Muraleedharan criticised the police action, stating that such measures would only help to gain some cheap publicity.

Adding some sarcasm to drive home his point, Muraleedharan said some police officers were "holding press conferences to announce police policy". The KPCC chief reminded policemen that it was not the right thing to give details revealed by those held in custody to journalists through a press conference.

Meanwhile, the document forgery case itself appears to be edging towards a conclusion following the reported confession of Thaniniram reporter Jayachandran.

Jayachandran has reportedly owned up to the Crime Branch officials that he himself had called Surya TV reporter Anil Nambiar, posing as an Intelligence DySP, using a pre-paid cell phone SIM card he had purchased in April-May, and that the calls were made from MLA Shobhana's house.

Following Shobana's arrest, Jayachandran had gone into hiding and only surfaced this week when he turned himself into the hands of the Crime Branch officials. Natarajan said Jayachandran had sought two days to reveal who had forged the document, when it was forged, and where it was done. Natarajan added that Jayachandran was admitted to a hospital in Nagercoil after he went missing from Shobhana's house when the Crime Branch officials came to arrest Shobhana's private secretary Anil P. Srirangam.

At one point of time, it was considered that the case would have serious political implications as Shobhana is identified with the 'I' group in the Congress party headed by veteran leader K. Karunakaran.

But as the case winds to a close, it appears that the only major casualty would be Shobhana, where the buck will stop.