Controversies
Though Nair was instrumental in the formation of Sri Sankaracharya Sanskrit University, he caught up in corruption allegations on its matter. It was in the matter of purchasing land for sub-centres for the University that he was accused of. Due to this matter, he was suspended from service on 10 January 1997, when he was under a long leave. After his retirement, he was also arrested on the same matter, and became the first former Chief Secretary of Kerala, and probably in India itself, to be arrested on corruption allegations. [3] But, he was later acquitted by the High Court of Kerala due to lack of evidence, and his time period under suspension, which lasted till his retirement on 30 April 1997, was regularised, thereby enabling him to enjoy full pension.
The case was that Nair caused a loss of ₹3.4 Million to the University by purchasing 75 cents of land from a private organisation named Sree Vidyadhiraja Vidya Samajam, which was founded by him, and was headed by R. Kumaran Nair, his elder brother, as the President, and his close friend named V. N. Krishna Pillai as the Secretary when this incident happened. The vigilance charge sheet said that Nair brought the land for an exorbitant amount of ₹50,000, while its price was just ₹5,650 in market rate. The Samajam had bought it just six months before this incident, at the rate of ₹3,000. Krishna Pillai was also arrested on its matter, while Kumaran Nair was acquitted due to lack of evidence earlier.
Nair accused his immediate successor C. P. Nair, a 1962 Batch IAS officer, and himself a noted writer, on this case. His accusation was that despite being a year junior to him in both birth and service, C. P. Nair was trying to topple him to get to the post of Chief Secretary earlier, but still the then-government appointed him, and enraged by this incident, C. P. Nair tied with the opposition parties, which came to power in 1996, and by considering this as an opportunity, framed him in the cases, which led to his suspension, and also prevented from him being appointed as the Cabinet Secretary of India, despite being the senior-most serving IAS officer at that time.
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