Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Tuesday questioned the state government on why it ordered a preliminary enquiry when information was given by the ED, in connection with the alleged CMRL bribery case, regarding offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act against former Keralam Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and others.
The poser came from a bench of Justices K Natarajan and Johnson John while hearing applications by Vijayan, his daughter Veena T and her husband P A Mohamed Riyas seeking leave to appeal against a single judge direction to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to lodge an FIR against them.
Advocate General Jaju Babu told the bench that the government decided to order a preliminary enquiry as it wanted to confirm the allegations in the information given by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), as a lot of other materials connected with the matter had not been furnished by the agency to the state police.
Vijayan, Veena and Riyas, in their appeals, have claimed that they were not heard by the single judge before issuing the October 9 direction to lodge the FIR.
During the over two-hour-long hearing, the bench asked the appellants why they had not challenged the FIR since it had already been registered.
It also asked whether an accused or proposed accused be always heard before registering an FIR against them in a criminal matter.
The lawyers for the appellants contended that they ought to have been heard as the court was hearing a writ petition and its orders would affect them.
''It was not a case of a police officer registering an FIR in the routine course," the lawyers for the appellants said.
They also said that once the High Court has ordered lodging of an FIR, the appellants cannot challenge it in the court.
They also claimed that the petition, in which the single judge passed the order, was in the form of a public interest litigation and therefore, it should have been heard by a division bench which deals with PILs.
The court said it will continue to hear the matter in the post-lunch session.
The appeals were moved in the wake of the VACB's Special Investigation Unit-1 registering, on Monday, two FIRs against Vijayan and his family members in connection with the alleged CMRL bribery case.
The Kerala High Court on October 9 directed registration of a case based on a report submitted by the ED to the state police.
The ED had sought registration of a case based on evidence gathered during its investigation and searches conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency has alleged that CMRL made fraudulent payments of Rs 2.78 crore to Veena's now-defunct company, Exalogic Solutions, under the guise of IT consultancy services.