Amicus curiae appointed to assist Kerala High Court in case involving CM Vijayan

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday sprang a surprise by appointing an amicus curiae to assist the court in a case challenging a vigilance court's refusal to order an investigation into allegations of bribery and misuse of power by high-ranking public officials in Kerala, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter T. Veena.

The high court appointed advocate Akhil Vijay as amicus curiae.

The petitioner in the case, Gireesh Babu after his plea was turned down by the Vigilance Court, had approached the high court. Babu passed away in September, and the court has decided to go forward with it after the case came up for hearing.

Babu had decided to approach the Vigilance Court after a vernacular media a few months ago had come out with a report that the findings of the Interim Board for Settlement-II of the Income Tax department, New Delhi indicated that offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 were committed by the accused persons, including Vijayan and others.

The report pointed out that an "illegal payment" of Rs 1.72 crore was made by CMRL to Exalogic Solutions Private Limited, the IT firm owned by Veena, and officials of the CMRL had testified that the money was given but no services were taken.

The IT wing in its report had mentioned the names of top leaders, including Late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Congress veteran Ramesh Chennithala and other politicians such as Kunjali Kutty, and it also pointed out from the CMRL records that a politician with the initials 'PV' had also received money from CMRL.

While the Congress leaders and others openly admitted that they took political funding for their parties from CMRL, Vijayan laughed it off by saying, he is not the 'PV' that was mentioned as there are many people with that initial.