CVC's food secretary stint not in bio-data

NEW DELHI: P J Thomas's tenure as Kerala food and civil supplies secretary, when the palmolein import scam took place and he was chargesheeted, did not find mention in the bio-data placed before the selection committee which chose him as central vigilance commissioner.

This appears to be the second anomaly in the selection process. The Centre had admitted before the Supreme Court on Thursday that information about the chargesheet against Thomas was kept out of the docket considered by the committee comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

The chargesheet filed by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau against Thomas refers to him as secretary to the government of Kerala, food and civil supplies department, during 1991-92. It accuses him of entering into a criminal conspiracy between October 1991 to March 1992 with the other accused for importing palmolein directly to Kerala, when the government of India had no such policy. It alleged that the imports caused a loss of Rs 2.32 crore.

This designation of food and civil supplies secretary is completely missing from the bio-data considered by the selection committee. According to the bio-data, Thomas was a joint secretary or Level-I officer posted as director gaining major experience in "agriculture and cooperation" and minor experience in "fisheries" between February 1, 1990 and December 1, 1996.

In fact, the bio-data detailing his experience from July 16, 1977, when he joined the civil services as sub-collector, has no mention of his stint in the department of food and civil supplies.

The SC had on Thursday wanted to know from attorney-general G E Vahanvati the reasons for elimination of Bijoy Chatterjee from the race. Chatterjee's bio-data says that his first posting as sub-divisional officer (SDO) was on July 1, 1975, making him two years senior to Thomas.

While Thomas came on central government deputation on January 23, 2009, as parliamentary affairs secretary, Chatterjee's central deputation started from January 2, 2009, as secretary, chemicals and fertilisers.