Trial in Palm Oil case should continue : High Court

Quashing a plea of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government seeking to close the palmolein scam, the Kerala high court on Thursday ordered that the trial into the case should continue. This comes as a setback to the government as the court approved the Vigilance court’s stance that the case should not be closed now. Justice P Ubaid pronounced the order on an appeal filed by the state government and Jiji Thomson, a senior IAS officer, against the Vigilance court order, which rejected the plea to withdraw the case. “The withdrawal of the case will only help the accused. It would be against the public interest,” the court observed, adding, “the fact that the key witnesses are not alive is not reason enough to close the case.” Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan and VS Sunil Kumar, MLA, had moved the high court citing it would be unfair to withdraw corruption cases. The court made it clear that both Achuthanandan and Sunil Kumar could intervene in the issue on behalf of the public. The UDF government had requested to withdraw the decades-long case that originated in 1991, when K Karunakaran was chief minister, citing there was no point in continuing as three officials with the civil supplies, who had given key statements in the case, had died. Karunakaran, who was the key accused, is also no more. However, the Vigilance Court in Thrissur had ordered that the case should not be withdrawn. The government claimed that the Vigilance had held that the Cabinet’s decision to import palmolein was right. Moreover, the Centre had not given the nod to try former Vigilance Commissioner PJ Thomas and Jiji Thomson. However, the Vigilance Court rejected all these claims.

Achuthanandan and Sunil Kumar had claimed that the decision to withdraw the case, which caused severe loss to the state exchequer, was ill-aimed and politically motivated. The Vigilance Court, had, however, rejected the plea to conduct a probe against chief minister Oommen Chandy. The case alleged irregularities in the import of palmolein by the government through Power and Energy Limited Company, a Singapore-based firm.

The investigation agency’s charge sheet says the government’s decision caused a loss to the tune of Rs 2.32 crore to the exchequer. The decision was to import 15,000 tonnes of palm oil. Opposition seeks CM’s resignation Meanwhile, the Opposition LDF has demanded the resignation of chief minister Oommen Chandy as he was the finance minister when the scam

occurred. Pannyan Raveendran, secretary, CPI state council, said the high court order is a charge sheet against the government and the chief minister is responsible for that.

Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, in a press conference today, said Chandy should resign from the post. He also urged the government not to appoint Jiji Thomson, director, Sport Authority of India (SAI), as chief secretary of the state. He is also one of the accused in the case.