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Supreme Court judge asks why CBI does not take over palmolein probe

The bench issued the directive while considering a petition filed by opposition leader

Kochi: The Supreme Court on Monday observed whether it would not be better to hand over the investigation into the palmolein case to Central Bureau of Investigation. Questioning whether the State police under Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will be impartial in probing the 1991 palmolein scam, the division bench of Justices T S Thakur and R Banumathi asked Kerala High Court to dispose of within three months the appeal filed by Kerala Government against the trial court order deciding to go ahead by the case.

“The decision to withdraw the case was taken at a Cabinet meeting convened by CM Oommen Chandy”, the court observed. The court asked whether Mr Chandy could not have kept off the meeting. “The government has decided to drop the case and at the same time the court rules in favour of a probe so how can one justify a probe initiated by the state police”, the court wondered.

The bench issued the directive while considering a petition filed by opposition leader VS Achutanandan, seeking a fresh investigation into the 23-year-old controversial scam. Mr Achuthanandan contended that the Government decided to withdraw the case to favour Mr Chandy, who was the finance minister in 1991.

( Source : dc correspondent )
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