The Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) is allegedly planning to avoid registering case against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and two of his Cabinet colleagues in the Rs 200-crore titanium corruption scandal despite a Vigilance court’s ruling that no special sanction is needed for prosecuting them in the case.

As a part of this bid to spare Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and Public Works Minister VK Ibrahim Kunju, the VACB has decided to seek legal advice before listing them as accused in the FIR on the ground that the order of the Special Vigilance Court, Thiruvananthapuram does not contain “direct instruction” to book them.

The court had on Thursday directed the Vigilance to launch an investigation at the earliest by registering an FIR against Chandy, Chennithala, also former PCC chief, and Ibrahim Kunju of the Muslim league in the Rs 200-crore corruption scandal observing clearly that no prior sanction from the Governor was needed for moving against the three leaders.

The VACB has now allegedly embarked on efforts to find loopholes in the court's order. According to the Vigilance, the court order is unclear about registering case against Chandy and the two Ministers except its observation that the three persons would not have legal protection as they were not in the Government during the time when the complaint on corruption had come up.

The Vigilance move is to spare Chandy and his two Cabinet colleagues and to hold investigation against the other eight persons mentioned in the court order including former Travancore Titanium chairman and members of the director board during the time of approval of the pollution control plant project.

One of the justifications the VACB is putting forward for not moving against Chandy is that the court had found no evidence to prove his role in the conspiracy behind the project. In this situation, the Vigilance is planning to delay the filing of the FIR till it got clear legal advice on the matter. Also, the Government is unlikely to appeal against the Vigilance court's order.

At the same time, the Muslim league leadership has stated that Ibrahim Kunju will not resign from the Chandy Cabinet in the context of the court order. “There are 21 Ministers in Kerala. If Ministers decide to resign whenever cases came up against them, nobody will be left in the Cabinet,” said Industries Minister and top Muslim league leader PK Kunhalikutty.

Chief Minister Chandy and Home Minister Chennithala had on Friday categorically stated that they were not planning to resign. Chennithala also said that he would not relinquish the Vigilance portfolio he was holding though he himself had to be probed by the very department he was controlling, which many view as a problem of propriety.