New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, April 9 In a jolt to Veena Vijayan, daughter of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused a stay of the probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into allegations of her (now defunct) IT firm Exalogic receiving monthly gratification to the tune of Rs 2.70 crore from Kochi-based Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL), for mining sanctions,
As a bench of Justice Girish Kathpalia took up the case, the counsel for SFIO pointed out that the charge sheet has already been filed at a court in Kochi.
At this, the court said that there is nothing else to be done.
But as the judge was closing the case, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner CMRL, pointed out that when this case was previously heard by Justice Subramaniom Prasad, the SFIO had orally informed the court that they would not take further action.
On Sibal’s mention, the court, after perusal of the papers, pointed out that there is no mention of such a thing according to the judicial records before the court.
But as Sibal reiterated the oral observation, the court decided to repost the case before Justice Prasad on April 22, as, according to Sibal, it was this judge to whom the SFIO had provided this assurance.
Meanwhile, with the court giving no stay, Veena Vijayan could find herself in a spot of bother as the Enforcement Directorate has already got the charge sheet filed by the SFIO about this illegal gratification at the court in Kochi.
Reacting to the developments in the Delhi High Court, Kerala BJP leader Shaun George, who is also a party in the case, said with no stay being granted, the ED can now go forward with the findings in the SFIO charge sheet, as it also involves money changing hands outside of the country.
The SFIO has all along maintained in the Delhi High Court that the payment made by the mining company CMRL to Exalogic constituted corruption and that the payment was made to ensure smooth operations for the CMRL.
This issue first surfaced when an Income Tax Settlement Board statement pointed out that Exalogic received this illegal gratification, and there was no service the IT firm had provided.
Incidentally, two petitions, filed earlier in the Kerala High Court and the other in the Karnataka High Court, challenging the SFIO investigation into the CMRL-Exalogic transactions, were dismissed.
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