Kerala’s solar scam-beleaguered Congress-led UDF Government has decided to withdraw the sensational case pertaining to the palm oil import scandal — which has been haunting the Congress since 1992 — in which a former Chief Minister and a Minister, both of Congress, and bureaucrats including former CVC PJ Thomas had been named as accused.
The Government, which has already issued an order in this regard, would soon move the Vigilance Court to get approval for the Cabinet’s decision while the Opposition termed the withdrawal as a shameless act of the Congress and its Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to save the corrupt and said that it would challenge the decision in the court.
“The Chandy Government is trying to save criminals,” said Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan who had been pursuing the case for the past several years. “They withdrew the Travancore Titanium corruption case. They are now in the process of withdrawing the solar scam cases step-by-step. It is for this Chandy is continuing as Chief Minister,” he alleged.
The previous UDF Government headed by Chandy himself had in 2005 decided to withdraw the case totally but the CPI (M)-led lDF Government resumed it in 2006. The Chandy Government has also abrogated the order of the former lDF Government for the resumption of the palm oil case.
Though Chandy was not an accused in the case originally, Vigilance Court had ordered a probe against him in October, 2011 following which he relinquished the Vigilance portfolio. However, the Kerala High Court on June 25, 2013 gave him a clean chit based on the report of a Vigilance probe report of August, 2011 which exonerated him.
The case pertains to the import of 15,000 tonnes 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 public distribution network. The import was allegedly in violation of the guidelines of the State Trading Corporation.
Apart from Karunakaran and Thomas, former Food Minister TH Musthaffa, former Chief Secretary S Padmakumar, former Civil supplies Corporation MD Jiji Thomson and former additional Chief Secretary Zacharia Mathew were named as accused in the charge sheet of 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 tonne while the prevailing market price was $395.25 per tonne. 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 case, which was initiated by the 1996-2001 lDF Government, had lost its steam by the time Chandy had become Chief Minister in May, 2011 but it got lively again after Musthaffa filed a discharge petition in the court (along with Jiji Thomson) praying that he be removed from the case as his role as then Minister was equal to that of Chandy, who was not an accused.
The Government had recently thought of requesting the court for removing the name of Jiji Thomson from the list of accused but the Vigilance had advised it that this was legally impossible but it could approach the court for withdrawing the case. The present decision is based on that advice.