The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed for a week the investigation against former Keralam chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter Veena T. and her husband P.A. Mohammed Riyas in the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) bribery case.
The temporary relief was granted to allow the trio to approach a division bench of Kerala High Court to challenge a single-judge order that had triggered the vigilance probe.
The special bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana also directed the Enforcement Directorate not to “meddle” with the statutory powers of the other investigating agencies.
The case arose from allegations that CMRL made payments to Veena and her now-defunct IT company Exalogic Solutions Ltd between 2017 and 2020. The ED alleged that these payments were not genuine remuneration for services but were bribes intended for Vijayan.
According to the ED’s findings, the CMRL paid a total of ₹3.28 crore to Veena and her company during the period. The agency also alleged that Riyas had links to hawala channels used to transfer around ₹1.2 crore to the UAE.
“Go ahead with your prosecution. Don’t extend your hand beyond your statutory limits. We are making it very clear. Don’t use the process of statutory powers to meddle with the statutory domain of other entities. We are fully clear (about) what you have done and what the high court has done. We will maintain the FIR, but no investigation will be done until and unless these issues are decided by the appellate court,” Justice Bagchi told senior advocate Zoheb Hossain appearing for the ED.
The bench passed the directions while allowing an appeal filed by Vijayan and the other two accused challenging the high court division bench’s refusal to interfere with the October 9 order by the single-judge bench directing the state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau to register an FIR based on the information supplied by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and conduct a probe.
The single-judge bench had passed the order on a PIL filed by Congress leader K.M. Shahajahan, alleging corruption in the CMRL- Exalogic deal. While passing the impugned order, the single-judge bench also relied on a preliminary ED report, which had alleged cognisable money-laundering offence.
Advocates Siddharth Luthra and N. Hariharan, appearing for Vijayan, told the top court that the high court had passed the October 9 order without hearing the accused.
According to Luthra, based on the FIR by the Kerala Vigilance Commission, the ED had registered a fresh enforcement case information report (ECIR) alleging money-laundering charges and summoned Vijayan on October 23.
“We will not stay the FIR. But on the points whether cognisable offence is made out, the statutory requirement of continuation of investigation, we will say you need to be heard. We express no opinion on the validity of the fresh ECIR and leave it open to be agitated in an independent proceeding by the petitioner,” the top court said.
The bench said the stay would apply only to the investigation and not the FIR registered on October 12.
CPM hails verdict
CPM general secretary M.A. Baby said the top court verdict was a major “blow” to both the ED and the Kerala government.
“I don’t want to say they (the ED and the state government) conspired, but they moved hand in glove with each other. The Supreme Court is very clear that there was no hurry on the part of the state government to frame the FIR within 24 hours. If they had waited, they would not have had the blow from the Supreme Court,” Baby said.