In a mysterious move, the Congress-led Kerala Government filed an appeal in the High Court challenging a single-judge bench’s order in a fraudulent land transaction case against Salim Raj, former gunman of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Salim Raj was suspended from service in June over his association with solar scam perpetrator Saritha S Nair.
Though there was no convincing explanation from the Government for its interest in a case against an individual, the Advocate General himself appeared in the court on Wednesday to argue before a division bench against Monday’s order of a single-judge bench to confiscate the phone call records and recordings of phone conversations of Salim Raj.
Government Chief Whip PC George questioned the interest of the State Administration in the case while the Opposition lDF commented that the Government wanted to conceal matters related to Salim Raj as these could affect Chandy, already beleaguered by the infamous solar scam in which he was facing allegation of involvement.
The bench of Justice VK Mohanan had on Monday ordered production of phone records of Salim Raj, Revenue documents related to the land deal fraud he had committed and other records before it. The Advocate General argued phone records could not be confiscated and handed over to the court as it would amount to infringement on personal freedom.
Amidst doubts being aired by legal experts and the petitioners over the importance of the case that necessitated the Advocate General’s personal appearance, he submitted that the kind of records the single-judge bench had asked for could to be confiscated and produced before it as the case was over 20 years old.
The division bench headed by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur imposed a stay on Monday’s order for confiscation of Salim Raj’s phone records but left the other part of the order, seizure of the revenue records concerning the fraudulent land transaction, untouched. The complainants had approached the court seeking a CBI probe against Salim Raj.
Chandy had allegedly overlooked an Intelligence report against Salim Raj while making him his gunman when he became Chief Minister in May, 2011 thus drawing criticisms from several quarters that he was protecting the tainted police officer. Also, the suspended officer is said to be close to the Chief Minister personally and to his family.
The Chief Minister had expelled Salim Raj from his personal staff along with personal assistant Tenny Joppen, now behind the bars, on June 14 after it was proved that they had been in regular telephonic contact with con woman Saritha S Nair, one of the main perpetrators of the solar scam, over which the Opposition had been demanding Chandy’s resignation.
However, Chandy had resisted the demand for suspending Salim Raj for 11 days. The Opposition has been consistently saying that the Government was refusing to arrest Salim Raj, whose involvement in the scam was as crucial as that of Joppen, because of his “business’ relations with the Chandy family.
“The Government filed the appeal as Chandy and his associates have several things to be kept buried about Salim Raj. However, truth cannot be kept buried for long,” said Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan. “What role does the Government have in a case filed by a citizen against a fraudsterIJ” asked Government Chief Whip PC George.