In a huge setback to the State’s UDF Government headed by Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the Kerala High Court on Thursday turned down its request to withdraw the sensational palm oil import corruption case which had cost PJ Thomas the job of Chief Vigilance Commissioner and had been dogging the Congress and the UDF for the past two decades.
Dismissing a revision plea filed by the Government seeking permission to withdraw the case, Justice P Ubaid of the High Court said that the only beneficiaries of ending the proceedings would be the accused. Corruption cases should be withdrawn only if there was public interest and normal trial should occur in such cases for the truth to come out, the court observed. The High Court upheld an order issued on January 10, 2014 by the Special Vigilance Court, Thrissur disallowing the Government to end the case, pointed out that the Vigilance itself had found elements of mystery in the controversial import of palm oil in 1992, when Congress leader (late) K Karunakaran, originally first accused in the case, was chief minister.
Justice Ubaid also rejected the Government’s arguments that the main witnesses were dead and the case had been going on for several years affecting the promotion prospects of the accused officials. Stating that the death of witnesses did not mean the death of the case, the court said the money used for importing palm oil came from the tax payers who had a right to know the truth. The High Court issued the order on Thursday after hearing in detail the arguments in the case in which Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan and CPI legislator VS Sunilkumar had impleaded. The Advocate General argued that they had no right to implead in the case but the judge rejected this argument also, saying that they had every right to do so as responsible public servants.
The High Court order is a huge setback to the UDF Government which is already under a cloud of several serious corruption allegations and scandals like the solar scam of 2013 in which accusations were leveled at the Chief Minister himself and the recent bar scam pertaining to the charge that Finance Minister KM Mani had taken bribe from bar owners. This was not the first time Chandy had tried to withdraw the palm oil import case. The previous UDF government headed by him had in 2004 decided to end the proceedings in the case but failed to avail the court’s clearance. The CPI(M)-led lDF regime which succeeded the UDF government revoked the decision.
A Vigilance court had ordered a probe against Chandy in the palm oil case in 2011 but the High Court later gave him a clean chit. The case pertains to the import of 15,000 tons of palm oil through Malaysian company Power and Energy Pvt ltd by the Kerala government headed by (late) K Karunakaran in 1992 at inflated rates for distribution through the PDS system. Apart from Karunakaran and PJ Thomas, former Food minister TH Musthaffa, former chief secretary S Padmakumar, former Supplyco MD Jiji Thomson and former additional chief secretary Zacharia Mathew were named as accused in the chargesheet filed in 1999. Karunakaran’s name was removed from the list after his death in December, 2010.
The accused were charged with criminal conspiracy for the import of palm oil at a rate of $405 per ton while the prevailing market price was $395.25 per ton. The deal had caused a loss of Rs 2.8 crore to the Exchequer but the Congress party has consistently maintained that the State had actually benefited from the import.The Opposition lDF demanded Chandy’s resignation in the context of the High Court order. Accusing Chandy of turning the Government into a custodian of corruption, Opposition leader Achuthanandan said he had no right to continue as Chief Minister.