The Kerala Government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan would be furnished a copy of the final report in a case registered against Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty and his relative K.A. Rauf on the basis of the disclosure made by the latter in connection with the ice-cream parlour sex scandal case.
Kerala's counsel made the submission before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya during the course of hearing of an appeal filed by Mr. Achuthanandan against an order of the Kerala High Court rejecting his plea for a copy of the action taken report/final report.
Senior counsel Shekar Naphade, appearing for Kerala submitted that subsequent to the High Court order, charge-sheet had been filed in this case and the High Court had already held that the appellant was not entitled for a copy of it. However, counsel for the State assured that the appellant would be given a copy of the charge sheet.
Charge against State
Mr. Naphade submitted that since the charge sheet had been filed, the High Court might take a view that monitoring should come to an end. He alleged that the State machinery had gone all the way to protect the accused and there were materials to show that 22 important public servants were involved. “There is much more than what meets the eye,” he said and wanted the court monitoring to continue.
When senior counsel said the High Court had denied the appellant the charge-sheet as he had only filed a public interest petition, Justice Singhvi observed, “you {the appellant} have been a public representative for years and you are entitled to espouse public cause.”
The Bench then issued notice to the State returnable in four weeks observing that interpretation of certain provisions were involved in the appeal.
The Leader of the Opposition sought a copy of the final report when his writ petition seeking a CBI probe in the case came up for hearing.
