As the Kerala High Court stayed the CBI probe into the role of bureaucrats in the scam associated with the LIFE Mission project for building houses for those without roofs over their head, the ruling CPI(M) claimed victory while the Opposition BJP and the Congress termed it as a setback for the Pinarayi Vijayan Government.
Justice V G Arun of the Kerala High Court stayed for two months the CBI probe into the role of U V Jose, the CEO of the project. But the judge refused to quash the FIR filed by the CBI in the case. The court also said the investigating agency is at liberty to probe the private contractor Unitac which was building the apartment complex in Thrissur district.
The probe against the Government official has been stayed taking into account the contention that the financial assistance received from Red Crescent for the project would not come under the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA).
The judge said that this has the be heard in detail. But the CBI has been allowed by the court to pursue with its probe into the roles played by Swapna Suresh, the kingpin of the gold smuggling scam from whose bank locker the NIA seized crores of rupees alleged to be commission received in the Kerala Government-Red Crescent deal.
Meanwhile political Kerala is in turmoil as Janmabhumi, a Malayalam newspaper which is the mouthpiece of Sangh Parivar published excerpts of Swapna’s statement to the NIA. She has reportedly told the NIA team that it was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who introduced her to M Sivsankar, his former principal secretary with a direction to the latter to offer all help to the controversial woman.
Swapna’s statement is being seen as a setback to Vijayan, who had claimed that he does not know anything about the controversial woman.
The NIA, according to the leaked report, had confirmed that she had visited the office and official residence of Vijayan many times. The CPI(M) spokespersons remained incommunicado after the excerpts were published giving credence to the reports that chief minister was upset.