The Hindu : Kerala News : B.Ed. college case: Vigilance court's finding upheld

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

B.Ed. college case: Vigilance court's finding upheld

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, FEB. 22. The Kerala High Court today upheld the Kozhikode Vigilance Court's prima facie finding that there was sufficient material to proceed against three Indian UnionMuslim League leaders in a case relating to the demand for bribe for sanctioning a B.Ed. college to the Metropolitan of the Malabar Jacobite Orthodox Syrian Church, Bishop Yuhannon Mar Philixinos.

Dismissing the petition filed by P.C. Ahammed, general secretary of the Wayand district committee of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and N. Mamooty, chairman of Text-Fed, Justice K. Padmanabhan Nair, said that it was clear that the intention of the petitioners was to prevent the present judge from hearing the case and taking a decision on framing of charge-sheets.

The judge pointed out that the writ petition was filed two days before the date fixed for closing the evidence.

There was no explanation why the accused waited till February 2 for challenging the vigilance court order passed on March 10, 2004. Dismissing a contention of the petitioners, the court observed that it did not find any undue haste on the part of the judge in recording the evidence.

According to the petitioners, they had demanded only a donation of Rs.2.50 lakhs for the construction of a party office at Malappuram and it might not amount to bribe.

The court observed that these were matters to be decided by the trial court.

The court also pointed out that the petitioners had already participated in the inquiry conducted by the vigilance court. In fact, they were permitted to cross-examine the witnesses. The court said that it was not obligatory on the part of the court to give permission to the accused to cross-examine the witnesses during the course of inquiry. The court said that there was no illegality in the order.

Sandalwood smuggling

A Bench comprising the Chief Justice, B. Subhashan Reddy, and Justice K.T. Sanakaran adjourned to February 24 the hearing on a writ petition which was filed before the High Court seeking a CBI probe into the roles of the former Forest Minister K.P. Viswanathan, forest officers concerned and other politicians in the sandalwood smuggling in the State.

The petition was filed by a Palakkad-based organisation called One Earth-One Life. The petitioner also sought a direction to the State Government to assess the loss incurred by the State due to the smuggling of 15,061 sandalwood trees and recover the loss from the officials. The petitioner alleged that as many as 15,061 sandalwood trees had been removed from the Marayur sandalwood forest areas since 1997.

Files produced

The Government pleader today produced before the Bench the records relating to a complaint received by the Government from the Advocate General Office Coordination Committee against the Additional Advocate General, V.K. Beeran, regarding the conduct of forest cases by him before the High Court.

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