School scam casts shadow over Congress in Kerala

The arrest of Thomas Chandy, a staunch supporter and financier of the Congress, in Kuwait in connection with a massive embezzlement of Indian School funds there recently has come as a severe jolt to the party which has been striving to improve its image in the run up to the State Assembly elections slated for early next year.
The news of an arrest warrant issued against Asianet Executive President K.P. Mohanan, a former Kuwait Times employee who like Chandy has been nursing political ambitions in the Congress, in connection with the same case has also cast a shadow over the party.
Though Chandy has been eyeing the Congress candidature in Alappuzha in the forthcoming elections and funding both the major rival factions in the party it was with the Congress group led by senior leader K. Karunakaran, that he was more closely associated.
A section of the Malayalam press reported recently that Chandy had handed out Rs 2 million for the show of strength rally organised by Karunakaran's son K. Muraleedharan.
Karunakaran, who has not been keeping well, turned up recently at Chennnamkary, near Alappuzha, to launch a posh house boat belonging to Chandy named Rajivji. Rumours were rife then that Chandy would be the Congress candidate in Alappuzha.
Chandy's high profile role at the famed Nehru Trophy Boat Race in the Punnamada Lake recently had sparked a row. At the race, attended by Union Minister Anand Kumar, he brushed aside all security norms and strode to his new boat with his family before the dais.
Though Chandy has been let off on bail on a payment of Rs 6.5 million, he will not able to leave Kuwait till he pays up a sum of KD 50,000 plus its interest or produces K.P. Mohanan before the Kuwait court. Even if this particular case is settled, there are several others related to the huge school fund scam, according to the schools Council of Elders. A lion's share of the schools KD 400,000 fund is reported to have been siphoned off to the personal bank accounts of Mohanan and others.