Kochi: A fresh petition seeking CBI probe into the land assignment case against opposition leader VS Achuthanandan was today filed in the Kerala High court.
Petitioner, Jijo Mathew, sought instructions be given to the Home Secretary to hand over the vigilance case to the CBI for filing final report.
According to the petitioner,there is ‘no fair or impartial’ investigation in the case.The present investigation was ‘highly biased’ and at the time of registering FIR, top IAS officers were included as accused and prima facie case made out against them.
The petitioner has sought the case be transferred to the CBI. AFP
Now, they have been deleted purposefully to ‘defeat administration of justice’, he said.
The prosecution had collected ‘strong evidence’ against them, but their names were deleted under political pressure, he alleged.
Meanwhile, the High court today reserved for orders the petition filed by Achuthanandan, seeking to quash proceedings against him in the case by vigilance.
The case was re-opened today by Justice SS Sateeshchandran on a request by the Director General of Prosecutions (DGP), T Asaf Ali. The DGP cited more precedents in Supreme Court in support of his case.
Achuthanandan’s counsel argued that no offence has been committed by the petitioner and the allegations in the FIR are baseless.
The case relates to alleged irregularities in the assignment of about 2.33 acres to TK Soman, a relative of Achuthanandan, in Kasaragod district during the term of the previous LDF government during 2006-11.
According to Achuthanandan, who is a former chief minister, the case was ‘politically motivated’ and no offence has been made out against him by the investigating officer.
PTI
