A CPM leader in Kozhikode has come under the scrutiny of the party's disciplinary committee for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹22 lakh to guarantee a position to a homoeopathy doctor on the Kerala Public Service Commission board.

A homoeopathy doctor couple had lodged a complaint with the Kozhikode district committee of the CPM accusing town area committee member Pramod Kottooli of accepting ₹22 lakh of the ₹60 lakh he had sought to get one of them the PSC post.

After taking the money eight months ago, Pramod allegedly told them he could get them a high position in the Ayush Mission. But the couple approached the party district body when nothing materialised.

Before the Lok Sabha elections, the CPM district committee had appointed a four-member panel to probe the allegations. Party sources said Kottooli would be removed from the post when the district panel meets later this week since the committee has found substance in the allegation.

The Opposition has alleged that public works minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas, who is chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law, and a few other Kozhikode-based party leaders were involved in the cash-for-post scam.

The Congress has leveraged the issue in the Assembly by seeking answers from Vijayan, who obliquely admitted that corruption is a reality. “Aren’t there malpractices happening already?” Vijayan countered when the matter was raised in the House on Monday.

“But what needs to be seen is that there would be consequential action whenever such malpractices are unearthed,” he said.

He said no one could influence appointments in a constitutional body like the KPSC. “The PSC in Kerala is an agency that goes strictly by its constitutional mandate,” he said.

“No one points a finger at any of the appointments made at the PSC. Hence (we can say) there has been no malpractice in appointments of PSC members,” he said.

Kozhikode district Congress president Praveen Kumar, however, directly accused the CM’s son-in-law of being the scam kingpin. “There are talks that minister Riyas is behind this scam,” he told reporters.

Riyas rubbished such allegations and threatened to sue anyone spreading canards against him. “I am being deliberately dragged into such issues.”

“Those who accuse me go quiet once it becomes clear that there is no such malpractice,” he said. “I will take legal action against such character assassination,” he added.