Kochi: Kerala High Court on Tuesday made the CBI a party in a case to find Raghavendra Thirtha Swami who has evaded the police for the last few years.
Justice V. Chithambaresh issued the order and posted the case to July 7 on an interim application filed by Sudheendra Theertha Swami.
The petitioner submitted that since the police had expressed their inability to find the controversial Swami, a CBI probe was needed.
The police in an affidavit had claimed that Swami was changing his hideouts suspected to be in Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and so a CBI probe was needed.
The court had also directed Raghavendra Thirtha to hand over all the deities and other articles belonging to the Kasi Math Samthan to the present Madathipathi.
It was pursuant to a High Court order the disciples of Sudhindra Thirtha handed over the address and phone numbers to the police.
The state had repeatedly admitted its failure to find Raghavendra Theertha. In September, it had submitted before the court that it had failed to serve a non-bailable warrant executed against Swami Raghavendra Theertha to recover the pooja utensils and other items of the Kasi mutt.
No grounds for N’tnl game probe
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday informed the Kerala High Court that there was no sufficient grounds to go ahead with the probe into the alleged corruption in the conduct of the 35th National Games in Kerala.
The CBI filed the report on a petition filed by CPM legislator V. Sivankutty seeking a directive to register an FIR based on his complaint alleging corruption leading to siphoning off crores of rupees.
The premier agency submitted that the central assistance for the conduct of the games was Rs 121 crore. During the inquiry, no role of central government employees was unearthed in its conduct.
It ruled out allegations that obsolete equipment were imported from Germany for synthetic tracks in stadiums.
The preliminary verification revealed that award of contract to a German company was made for an amount of Rs 6,23,87,280 through proper tendering process.
It also pointed out that the sports equipment worth Rs 32.56 crore were procured through 46 tenders and hence no action of corruption could be found to have taken place.
The CBI also stated that it could not bring any irregularities in the award of tenders for catering and verification also revealed that there were no complaints about the quality of food supplied during the Games.
The award of contract for the lighting equipment and for the LED display was done after observing all the formalities and no mala fide could be found out.
Cops flayed for harassing public
Kerala High Court on Tuesday criticised the police and sought a report from DGP T.P. Senkumar in two separate instances of police atrocities against the public.
Considering a petition of Adv Ajith alleging police harassment, Justice Alexander Thomas asked the police to file a report on Friday.
On June 11, the police registered a case against Ajith for obstructing the traffic by parking his vehicle on the Punaloor-Thenkashi national highway.
“Police is supposed to paste just a notice (on the vehicle) asking the petitioner to pay a fine and if the parked vehicle is causing any difficulty the cops should just remove the vehicle,” the petitioner argued.
He further submitted that he was appearing for the Punaloor Bar Assoc-iation against which the police was nursing a grudge.
The court meanwhile initiated suo motu proceedings against the police registering a case against a commuter who complained against the speeding of private buses in Kochi.
Police failed to curb the overspeeding of buses, the court observed.
A private bus operator had assaulted one Jijo of Panikkulangara on June 21 at Vyttila who questioned overspeeding of a private bus.
