Land scam costs Kerala minister job

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the CPI(M)’s smaller partner Kerala Congress (J) submitting to political pressure to dump its public works minister TU Kuruvila, other breakaway parties are already trying to lure the outfit away from the ruling Left Democratic Front.

Kerala Congress (J) chairman PJ Joseph, who gave way to Kuruvila after he was involved in a midair molestation case last year, told reporters that his party would decide on its next ministerial nominee on September 15.

Kuruvila, in the thick of a controversy after an NRI businessman accused the minister and his son of duping him of crores of rupees in a land deal in Munnar, said he will hand over his resignation letter to the chief minister on Monday. “As my son is involved in a case and there is a judicial enquiry pending into the matter, I am resigning as minister,” he said on Sunday.

The government had instituted a judicial probe into the realty deal after Idukki district collector Raju Narayana Swami had unearthed irregularities in the Rs19 crore agreement.