The Kerala High Court on Thursday dismissed applications filed by former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members seeking permission to appeal against a single judge’s direction to register an FIR against them in the alleged CMRL bribery case.
A bench of Justices K Natarajan and Johnson John rejected the applications filed by Vijayan, his daughter Veena T and her husband P A Mohamed Riyas. The applications challenged the single judge’s October 9 order directing the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to register a case based on a report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate.
The bench said the October 9 order “has not affected the applicants’ rights to pursue the constitutional statutory remedy against the registration of the FIR”.
“All the applications seeking leave to file appeal are dismissed,” the bench said. The detailed judgment is awaited.
Vijayan, Veena and Riyas had claimed in their appeals that the single judge had not heard them before issuing the direction to register the FIR. They also argued that once the High Court ordered the registration of an FIR, they could not challenge it before the court.
They further claimed that the petition in which the single judge passed the order was in the nature of a public interest litigation and should, therefore, have been heard by a division bench dealing with such cases.
The appeals were filed after the Special Investigation Unit-1 of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau registered two FIRs on Monday against Vijayan and his family members in connection with the alleged bribery case.
On October 9, the High Court directed the bureau to register a case based on the Enforcement Directorate’s report to the state police. The central agency had sought the registration of a case based on evidence gathered during its investigation and searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that CMRL made fraudulent payments of Rs 2.78 crore to Veena’s now-defunct company, Exalogic Solutions, under the guise of providing IT consultancy services.
With Thursday’s order, the High Court has rejected the applications by Vijayan, Veena and Riyas to appeal against the direction that led to the registration of FIRs in the alleged CMRL bribery case.
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