Payachira Navas filed around 40 petitions after Jacob Thomas took over VACB

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Litigant Payachira Navas, who has been in the news for filing complaints against top bureaucrats, police officials and political leaders, has filed more than 40 petitions before the vigilance ever since Jacob Thomas took over as the agency’s director.
Details accessed under the RTI Act shows that Navas, an accused in multiple criminal cases, have filed 33 petitions before the vigilance director and another six petitions before the vigilance court—all in a span of six months, till November 24, 2016.DGP Jacob Thomas had taken over as the vigilance director on June 2, 2016.
Interestingly, the agency that furnished accurate data about the number of petitions filed by the litigant ever since Jacob Thomas took over, has no details about the number of petitions filed by Navas prior to the tenure of Jacob Thomas though Navas claims that he used to file petitions even during the tenures of Shankar Reddy and Vinson M Paul.
In his latest petition, Navas has sought the removal of chief secretary S M Vijayanand, alleging that he has been covering up vigilance reports against several corrupt top officials. Other prominent officials against whom Navas has filed petitions were DGP N Shanker Reddy, ADGP R Sreelekha, additional chief secretaries Tom Jose and Viswas Mehta and political leaders, including former chief minister Oommen Chandy, opposition leader and former home minister Ramesh Chennithala, former finance minister K M Mani, former revenue minister Adoor Prakash and former industries minister E P Jayarajan.
State intelligence chief R Sreelekha had written to state police chief Lokanath Behera about the criminal cases against Navas and had requested him to inform the government about his role behind a slew of vigilance cases. Shanker Reddy also had written to vigilance director Jacob Thomas that Navas was in cahoots with certain “higher-ups” in the agency and concocting false complaints.
As per the copies of FIRs obtained by TOI, a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and a case for extortion have been registered against Navas. A case under sections for rash and negligent driving has also been filed against him.
“I have been filing complaints even before Jacob Thomas became the vigilance director. When Vinson M Paul and Shanker Reddy were at the helm they did not bother to give a proper reply. After Jacob Thomas took over, the petitioners have been given due importance. In the past six months, vigilance complaints increased 85% because the petitioners have faith in the vigilance director,” Navas said.