Saritha’s plea for CBI probe politically motivated, says HC

Denouncing the Solar scam accused Saritha S. Nair as “a person accused in 33 criminal cases for allegedly squeezing crores of rupees from different persons of the public” and devoid of credibility, the High Court of Kerala dismissed her petition seeking a CBI inquiry into the scam.

Justice B. Kemal Pasha also observed that the “petitioner cannot make use of the courtroom as a playground for playing politics on the eve of the Assembly election” and held that her present attempts seemed “to be politically motivated.”

The petitioner had sought an inquiry by another agency while stating that the Chief Minister was also a party to the transactions involving her. She also had a case that the investigating agency ought to have arraigned the Chief Minister as an accused in the case. Saritha also contended that as the State investigating machinery was under the Chief Minister, a proper investigation was not conducted and she was entitled to have a fresh investigation in the matter by another agency.

In his judgment, the judge noted that “a request for fresh investigation, reinvestigation or further investigation can be forwarded by an accused in a criminal case when the investigation was unfair, tainted or malafide. In this case, it does not show that the petitioner has any case of her own that the investigation is ex facie, unfair, tainted and malafide as far as she is concerned,” the judgment said.

The Advocate General and the Director General of Prosecution, the court observed, had pointed out that the present attempt was nothing but a political gimmick. The “present request of the petitioner cannot be entertained. What all arguments she has, she can take up before the court below at appropriate stage. When trial is going on, she can take up all her contentions before the court below,” observed the judge who dismissed the petition as one devoid of merit.

The court also noted that a petition with the same request was turned down by the court through a detailed judgment. The same was, the court said, taken up before the apex court through a Special Leave to Appeal, which was summarily dismissed. A writ petition by the Leader of the Opposition of the State seeking a CBI investigation in all the cases relating to Solar Scam was dismissed by the Division Bench of the court, the judgment noted.