Bringing some relief to Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government, the High Court on Monday stayed the proceedings in the sensational case pertaining to the alleged corruption in the import of palmolein in 1991-1992 when Congress leader K Karunakaran was Chief Minister.
The High Court stayed for two months all proceedings in the case on the basis of a petition the Government filed challenging an order of the Vigilance Court in Thrissur which had on January 10 dismissed a Government plea to end the case on the palmolein import scandal. The future of the sensational case would now be decided by the High Court.
The Vigilance court was scheduled to take up the case again on February 22. The Government had decided to withdraw the case in September last. In October, it approached the Vigilance court seeking permission for withdrawal with the argument that the palmolein import had not caused any loss to the Exchequer.
The case pertains to the alleged corruption in the import of 15,000 tons of palmolein through Malaysian company Power and Energy Pvt ltd by the Kerala Government headed by (late) 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, S Padmakumar, former Civil Supplies Corporation MD Jiji Thomson, former Food secretary PJ Thomas and Zacharia Mathew were named as accused in the chargesheet filed in 1999. Karunakaran’s name was removed from the list of accused after his death in December, 2010.
The accused in the case, which cost Thomas his job of CVC, were charged with criminal conspiracy for import of palmolein at a rate of $405 per ton while prevailing market price was $395.25. The deal had caused a loss of Rs 2.8 crore to the Exchequer, according to official audits but the Congress party had maintained that the State had actually benefited from the import.
Though Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was not an accused, a 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 which stated that no evidences were available against him.