The Kerala government on Thursday (July 30, 2026) dropped long-pending corruption charges against Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan concerning the marshalling of foreign funds for rehabilitating flood victims in his constituency in Paravoor, Ernakulam, when he was the Leader of the Opposition in 2019.

Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told reporters that the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s case against Mr. Satheesan was “politically motivated.”

He said the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has found no legal grounds to prosecute Mr. Satheesan. He said back-to-back inquiries by two VACB directors had “revealed no Vigilance angle” in the case.

The previous LDF government had ordered an anti-corruption Inquiry predicated on Mr. Satheesan’s 2019 visit to the United Kingdom at the behest of an Ernakulam-based charitable foundation to raise funds for rebuilding flood-damaged houses and distributing sewing machines to displaced families in Paravoor.

Mr. Chennithala, quoting the latest VACB report, said Mr. Satheesan had no role in the handling and disbursal of the funds that financed the Punarjani Project. The charitable society, which he identified as Manappad Foundation, a registered entity under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), had transacted through legal banking channels, with the transactions audited and reflected in the non-profit organisation’s financial records and other mandatory filings. “Moreover, Mr. Satheesan did not handle the funds or interfere in their utilisation at any point in time”, Mr. Chennithala said.

CM a victim of political witch hunt: Chennithala

Mr. Chennithala slammed the previous LDF government’s attempt to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing. He said Mr. Satheesan was the “victim of a political witch hunt” launched by the previous government against the United Democratic Front (UDF), which was then in Opposition.

The issue had come to the forefront of public discourse in the run-up to the 2026 Assembly elections. Seven years after the initiation of the preliminary inquiry, the Vigilance indicated possible offences under the FCRA Act, 2010.

According to officials, the VACB did not recommend a CBI inquiry, but merely noted that the CBI was the competent agency to investigate violations of the Central Act which regulates foreign contributions to entities in the country. They said the VACB had told the previous government that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, not the State government, had jurisdiction over the matter, contrary to widespread assumption.

Consequently, the previous LDF dispensation relied on the VACB’s report, which underscored that the State government’s consent was not a prerequisite for the CBI to investigate the accusations against Mr. Satheesan. The VACB had also noted that suspected FCRA violations fall under the exclusive purview of the Central government.

As Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Satheesan had accused the LDF of attempting to foist false charges on him to divert attention from the conviction of LDF Independent legislator and former Transport Minister Antony Raju for tampering with evidence in a narcotics case.

Mr. Satheesan had alleged that the LDF had in 2021 similarly attempted to alter the arc of the political narrative at the hustings by referring baseless sexual assault charges against a galaxy of Congress leaders, including former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

Published - July 30, 2026 11:55 am IST