The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Kerala government, the CBI and others on a petition filed by former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan seeking a CBI probe into the ice cream parlour sex scandal.
A Bench of Justices Ms. Ranjana Desai and C. Nagappan issued the notice after hearing senior counsel Shekar Naphade and counsel R. Sathish on a special leave petition against a Kerala High Court judgment rejecting his plea. The bench granted four weeks for filing the response.
Mr. Naphade said, “The High Court has tried to brush aside the allegations against high public functionaries under the carpet. This is the shocking state of affair, to say the least. I am afraid if this case does not warrant a CBI probe then which case will merit such kind of investigation. Even after lapse of a decade, the investigation has not proceeded to find out the truth. There is no investigation worth the name and attempts are made to shield the real culprits.”
Counsel drew the court’s attention to the inquiry report and said “they accept money has been exchanged, but say they don’t know the quantum of money.” He said “22 public officials are involved and if I reveal the names it will be embarrassing for the institution.”
According to Mr. Achuthanandan, P.K. Kunhalikutty and others had hatched a conspiracy and influenced the witnesses, created false evidence and forged documents to save Mr. Kunhalikutty from the case. He said that a Special Investigation Team was constituted by the LDF government. After the new government came to power, Mr. Kunhalikutty went on to become the Industries Minister. Since then, there had been no progress in the investigation into the case. This was because of the power wielded by the Minister, he alleged.
He said “the question is: Whether the alleged involvement of important functionaries of the State and judiciary by itself even if it is true as observed by the High Court is not a consideration to justify an investigation by the CBI.” In the present case, he said “it is not the involvement alone but a categorical finding of fraud being perpetrated to scuttle investigation and trial and yet, the local investigating team was unwilling to go further to unearth truth.
Mr. Achuthanandan sought quashing of the August 30 order of the High Court declining CBI probe.
Meanwhile, a bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri dismissed a special leave petition filed by N.K. Abdul Azeez against a High Court judgment rejecting CBI probe in a similar matter.