The Kerala Government on Thursday suffered a setback as the Kerala high Court asked it to cooperate with the CBI probe into the LIFE Mission project, the flagship programme of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led CPI(M) Government.
Justice V G Arun refused to stay the CBI probe as sought by the Kerala Government. He asked the Kerala Government to cooperate with the CBI and said he would consider the plea next Thursday.
The LIFE Mission envisaged building houses for all those in the State without roofs over their heads. The project was being implemented with the financial help offered by Red Crescent, a UAE based NGO.
The project ran into rough weather when the Centre announced that the Kerala Government has not sought the permission of the former as mandated by the Foreign Currency Regulation Act.
Things turned for the worse when the NIA probing the Thiruvananthapuram Airport Gold Smuggling scam took into custody Swapna Suresh, one of the kingpins and seized crores of rupees from her bank locker. The woman told the agency that the money was to be disbursed among political bigwigs in the State as commission of the LIFE Mission programme.
A Congress legislator Anil Akkara wrote to the CBI highlighting the irregularities in the mission and sought a thorough probe. Days before the CBI launched the investigation, Kerala Government ordered a Vigilance probe into the LIFE Mission scam.
The day the CBI began its probe, the Vigilance Department sleuths took away all the files from the LIFE Mission office in the capital city. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the CPI(M) state secretary alleged that the CBI probe was politically motivated and was against the concept of Federalism. He accused that the Centre was trying to subvert the functioning of the CPI(M) led Kerala Government.
But former Chief Minister Oommen Chandi said that the fear of the Kerala Government was because of its fear that many top politicians were part of the scam and any probe by the CBI would lead to the end of their political career.