Kerala HC dismisses plea to monitor Palmolein case

State govt during Karunakaran tenure decided to import palmolein,resulting in loss of Rs 2.32 cr.

The Kerala High Court on Friday turned down a plea to monitor investigation in the Palmolein graft case and held that the decision to import palmolein during 1991,when Oommen Chandy was the then Finance minister,was a collective decision of the state cabinet.

Chandy was the Finance minister in the K Karunakaran cabinet when the state government in November 1991 decided to import 32,000 tonnes of palmolein from Malaysia. The deal is alleged to have caused a loss of Rs 2.32 crore to the state exchequer.

The case originated 20 years ago and the import was approved by the cabinet. So it is not for the court to consider whether any person is to be made an accused, a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice C N Ramachandran Nair and Justice P S Gopinathan Nair observed,while dismissing a petition by bureaucrat-turned-politician Alphonse Kannanthanam.

Kannanthanam had sought monitoring of the investigation of the case by the high court.

We are not satisfied with the allegation against the present vigilance investigation, the Bench held and said that at this stage,the court cannot order fresh investigation.

During three occasions,vigilance had questioned the witnesses in the case,the court held.

Kannanthanam,who is now in the BJP camp,had submitted that like the 2G case,which is being monitored by the Supreme Court,the high court should monitor the Palmolein graft case and to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) consisting a distinguished panel of IPS officers.

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Investigation by the present team would not be fruitful as Chandy is the Chief Minister,the petitioner had stated.

The Kerala government had on October 18 informed the court that it had no objection to the vigilance court decision ordering investigation into the role of Chandy in the case.

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