Central Vigilance Commissioner Thomas says he will continue
By IANSWednesday, December 1, 2010
NEW DELHI -Chief Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas Wednesday said he would continue as the top corruption watchdog, despite the Supreme Court expressing its reservations about him as a fair investigator into the 2G spectrum scam.
“The government appointed me as CVC. I am continuing as CVC,” Thomas told reporters here.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium Wednesday informed the court that Thomas would not be associated in any way with the supervision of CBI’s investigations into the 2G scam.
On Tuesday, the bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly had expressed reservations on Thomas supervising probe into 2G spectrum allotment, as the latter as secretary of department of telecom had justified certain actions now under the CBI scanner.
“There is some old case and the Supreme Court has already given a stay on it. After looking at everything, the government has appointed me as CVC and I am still the CVC,” he said.
Thomas was telecom secretary when several decisions related to the 2G spectrum allotment were taken.
The opposition has been demanding Thomas’ resignation as his name figures in a chargesheet in a corruption case relating to the import of palmolein when he was serving in the Kerala government 14 years ago. However, the charges against Thomas were not framed.
Thomas, a Kerala cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer , was appointed to the CVC’s post by a three-member panel headed by the prime minister.
