Pleas to list Chandy dismissed

THRISSUR: The Vigilance Court on Thursday dismissed the pleas filed by Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan and BJP’s Alphonse Kannanthanam challenging the re-investigation report of the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau (VACB) in the 1992 Palmolein Import Case which has excluded Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s name from the list of the accused.The Court also accepted the re-investigation report submitted by Vigilance Superintendent of Police V N Sasidharan on January 7 which stated that there was no grounds for listing Chandy. When considering the report, Vigilance Court Judge V Bhaskaran said that there was no material evidence proving Chandy’s involvement.However, while dismissing the pleas, the judge observed that the investigating agency can indict Chandy or invoke discretionary powers under Section 319 of the CrPC at any stage if any evidence crops up against him.The Court will hear the discharge petition filed by former Chief Secretary S Padmakumar, former Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas, former Additional Chief Secretary Zachariah Mathew, and former director of the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation Jiji Thomson on June 18.It was on February 23 and March 14 that Achuthanandan and Kannanthanam had filed petitions seeking to reject the VACB report and to make Oommen Chandy an accused in the case on the basis of existing evidence in connection with the deal.Though Chandy was not an accused initially, his name figured following a discharge petition filed by former food minister T H Mustafa. Mustafa, an accused in the case, pleaded that he wanted the same justice that was given to Chandy by not making him an accused.The previous LDF government also filed a petition seeking further investigation, stating that more persons were likely to be named.The long-pending corruption case, in which the late Karunakaran was the first accused, had cost P J Thomas the post of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Thomas was listed as the sixth accused in the case relating to the import of 32,000 tonnes of palmolein from Malaysia, causing a loss of `2.32 crore to the exchequer.