The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Former prosecutors accused in Vigilance case

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Friday, Jan 06, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Former prosecutors accused in Vigilance case

Staff Reporter

Loss of 30 acres of forest land in Vithura

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: Two former Government lawyers have been named as accused in a case pertaining to the loss of more than 30 acres of forest land in Vithura.

The accused lawyers, both former Additional Government Pleaders, are M.M. Hussain and K.R. Nandakumar. The other persons named as accused in the case filed by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) are Girish Chandra Babu of Nedumangad, his father, Anirudhan, and their lawyer, Betsy Joseph.

According to the VACB, Girish had filed a civil case at the Sub-Court here in 1985 claiming ownership of 30 acres of forest adjacent to his agricultural land in Vithura. Girish gave Betsy Joseph, a lawyer from Peroorkada, the brief for conducting the case. In 1988, the Sub-Court passed an order in favour of Girish.

The VACB found that the judgment handing over the forestland was delivered ex parte. Later, the agency accused K.R. Nandakumar, who was the Additional Government Pleader then, of not contesting the case properly. No appeal was filed against the judgment and no action was taken to challenge the ex-parte decree, the Vigilance inquiry report said.

In 1992, the then prosecutor, M.M. Hussain, filed an appeal against the Sub-Court judgment.

However, the court rejected the appeal on the ground that sufficient cause was not given for "condoning" the delay in filing the appeal. No legal steps were taken on the part of the Government to overcome the ruling of the court, according to the VACB.

The VACB has also recommended departmental action against four Forest Department officials - Rani Kumar, S.K. Khanduri, Pradeep Kumar and Rajendra Nath - on the charge that they had failed in their duty as conservators to prevent 30 acres of forest land from falling into private hands.

The former Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar had ordered a Vigilance inquiry into the episode in 1999 on the basis of a petition filed by a resident of Vithura.

The case was registered after the agency got legal opinion that it could proceed against the accused lawyers. ADGP, Vigilance, Siby Mathew led the investigation team.

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