THE SUPREME COURT REJECT THE PLEA OF ACCUSED IN PALMOLEIN CASE

Dismissing the petition filed by three accused in Kerala Palmolein import case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the trial must continue in the case and that no one can be acquitted at this stage .The court was hearing a petition filed by former Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas and Congress leader T H Mustafa, seeking acquittal from the case.

The court also criticised the state government for trying to “mislead” the apex court. The government pleader had informed the Supreme Court that a review petition in this regard has been submitted to the High Court. However, the lawyer who appeared for CPI (M) leader V S Achuthanandan pointed out that this is wrong. Further, the bench headed by the

Chief Justice inspected the documents and censured the government Jiji Thomson, present chief secretary; PJ Thomas, former Kerala IAS officer; and TH Mustafa, then food minister are among eight accused in the case. In March, the Kerala High Court had rejected Jiji Thomson's plea seeking to stop all further proceedings in the case against him until the Supreme Court disposes Special Leave Petition (SLP). Earlier, his plea seeking dismissal of the case was rejected by both the lower court and high court. The Palmolein case relates to the import of 15,000 tonnes of palmolein oil from a Malaysian company in 1991 when the late K. Karunakaran was chief minister. The import had allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs 2.32 crore for the state.