The CPI(M)-led lDF Government in Kerala has come under fire from various quarters, mainly the Opposition Congress party, over Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s legal adviser MK Damodaran appearing in the High Court on behalf of ‘lottery King’ Santiago Martin who has been accused of plundering thousands of crores of rupees from Kerala through a fraudulent lottery business. The Congress cites this as proof of the leftist regime’s links with Martin.
Former Marxist Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, Pinarayi’s bête noire, joined the critics saying the matter was “unfortunate”. While Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala termed the appearance of Chief Minister’s legal advisor in the court for Martin as “unethical”, State Congress president VM Sudheeran called it “inappropriate”.
These things were unfortunate, Achuthanandan said on Tuesday referring also to the position adopted by the State Government in the Supreme Court that his plea seeking CBI probe into the ice cream parlour sex abuse case was politically motivated. “As a result of my legal war, Martin, who had been plundering crores from here, was forced to leave Kerala. This was a big achievement for the lDF,” he said.
Martin had approached the Kerala High Court challenging the move of the Enforcement Directorate to confiscate his property in connection with his allegedly fraudulent lottery business. It was in this case that the Chief Minister’s legal advisor, also a former Advocate General, appeared in the court for Martin on Monday.
The senior lawyer’s appearance in the court for Martin came close on the heels of the submission of a review petition by the Kerala Government in the same court against the CBI act of writing-off of several cases against him. The Central probe agency had closed 23 cases against the lottery king.
“What the CM’s legal advisor has done is unethical. He should have vacated the position he was holding before he did something like this. The CM should take stern action against him,” Chennithala said. He also asked whether the CPI(M) was trying to help Martin for the financial blessings he had allegedly bestowed on the party mouthpiece, Deshabhimani daily.
“It is mysterious that the legal advisor of the same Government which had decided to file appeals in the 23 lottery-related cases involving Martin has appeared on his behalf,” he said. State Congress chief VM Sudheeran said, “It was inappropriate for the Chief Minister’s legal advisor, a senior lawyer occupying a public position, to appear in court for Martin.”
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi had earlier attracted the ire of his own party colleagues in Kerala by appearing in the High Court for Megha Distributors, a company owned by Martin that was said to be the main pillar of the lottery mafia just when the State Congress was running a campaign on the alleged friendship between him and the CPI(M).
“The party in power now had then attacked us over Singhvi’s conduct. Singhvi was only a party spokesman. The person who has appeared in court for Martin now is occupying a position as high as that of the CM’s legal advisor,” said VD Satheesan, who had run a sustained campaign against the alleged Martin-Marxist friendship during the tenure of the 2006-11 lDF rule.
“I see this as a sign of the CPI(M)-led Government’s move to unroll the red carpet for Martin and his online lottery business,” said Satheesan. “It is now clear that the charges we had made against the CPI(M) and Martin were all true. Documental evidences had come out during the former lDF rule for the CPI(M)’s connections with Martin,” he added.
At the same time, reports quoted sources close to Damodaran as saying that the actual counsel for Martin in the case was some other lawyer and CM’s advisor had appeared in the court on his request. Even otherwise there was nothing wrong in Damodaran appearing in the court in this case since the State Government was not a party in it, they said.