Reprieve to Kerala government in land grab case

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) In a major reprieve to kerala chief minister oommen chandy and the ruling congress-led united democratic front the high court has stayed the strictures passed by a single bench judge against the former in the land grab case involving his former gunman salim raj

A division bench comprising of justices k m joseph and a k jayasankaran nambiar stayed two comments justice harun al rasheed made against the cm and his office in paragraph 70 of his order handing over the case to the cbi.

In the controversial paragraph the judge had observed that there were many people with criminal antecedents in the cm’s office and the latter was responsible for their criminal activities. the stay came on a petition filed by the government seeking expunction of the remarks.

The division bench has left the other remarks made against the chief minister by their colleague untouched and ruled that the stay will not affect the cbi probe in anyway. the government had sought the expunction of complete comments saying that it had cast serious aspersions on the cm and his reputation and career.

The appeal filed by advocate general kp danadpani pointed out that the judge had made the contemptuous remarks without giving an opportunity to the cm to present his side. this he said was a complete negation of the basic principles of natural justice.

The stay has come as a big relief to the udf since the opposition had used it as a major weapon to mount a massive offensive against them in the campaign for the lok sabha election to be held on april 10. the opposition had also demanded his resignation.

Chandy has expressed happiness over the high court verdict. he said he was dragged into the verdict unnecessarily. defence minister a k antony has also welcomed the verdict and said he was keen to know the reaction of opposition leader v s achuthanandan who had termed the remarks as a slap on the face of chandy to the fresh order.

However opposition leaders said the stay into a couple of remarks will not absolve chandy of his responsibility in the case. cpm politburo member kodiyeri balakrishnan said that the cm was a party in the case and he may not be able to continue to cling on to power long.

In another minor relief the federal government has asked the cbi to review their decision not to take over the investigation into the murder of marxist rebel leader t p chandrashekharan another hot poll issue.

According to reports from delhi cbi director ranjith sinha has forwarded the letter he has received in this regard from the ministry of personnel affairs to the south zone joint director s arunachalam. sinha has asked the jd to explore the possibility of taking up the case.

The action followed strong pressure from the state government which has sought a reversal of the decision before the poll since it helped the opposition to divert the campaign from political murders. the cpm has been citing the cbi decision to support their argument that the case was politically motivated.

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