The Hindu : Kerala News : Apex court told about withdrawal of palmolein case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Apex court told about withdrawal of palmolein case

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 25 . The Kerala Government today informed the Supreme Court that a Cabinet decision had been taken to withdraw the corruption case pending before a special court in Thiruvananthapuram against the former Chief Minister and Congress MP K. Karunakaran in the `Rs. 2.80-crore palmolein import scam' during 1991-92.

Acting on a petition from Mr. Karunakaran, the apex court in April 2003 had stayed the proceedings taken in pursuance to a judgment of the Kerala High Court dated February 19, 2003 that no permission of the Lok Sabha Speaker would be necessary to prosecute him despite the fact that he was an MP, when he was chargesheeted.

When counsel for Kerala, Ramesh Babu told a Bench of Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice B.N. Srikrishna, that the Government had decided to withdraw the case, the Bench said it could do so by filing an application before the special court. Since the issues involved in the petition filed by Mr. Karunakaran related to sanction for prosecution, the court said it would go ahead and hear the petition. Initially in 1997, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Special Cell, Thiruvananthapuram, registered a case against Mr. Karunakaran and seven others under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

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