KOCHI: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau will file a criminal revision petition before Kerala High Court against the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance court order for a further investigation into the bar bribery case.
The government will not challenge the order. The Vigilance will file the revision petition on the ground that the Vigilance special court order will amount to sabotaging the entire cases investigated by the VACB and hit its functioning.
It will also contend that the Vigilance manual empowers the director to monitor the probe and ensure that the investigation is in the right course.
Revision petition: The revision petition has been devised to avoid any miscarriage of justice in cases where no right of appeal is available.
Section 397 to 405 of Criminal Procedure Code deals with the powers of revision conferred on the higher courts and the procedure to regulate these powers.
The revision petition will cite a decision of the division bench of the High Court headed by Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan recently entrusting the Vigilance director to monitor the probe.
The order was passed on a petition filed by Mr V.S. Sunil Kumar MLA seeking a court-monitored probe. It is learnt that Mr Isaac Varghese, president, All-Kerala Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Protection Council, will file a petition against the order for not taking cognizance of Mr K.M. Mani and making him an accused even though the court had found evidence against him.
The VACB sent a report to the government on Friday seeking its nod to file an appeal. The VACB is mainly objecting to the directive of the Vigilance court to the investigation officer to conduct a further probe and form an independent opinion.
The VACB said that it was against the supervisory power vested in the Vigilance director.
A report of the VACB deputy director of prosecution, Vakkom G. Saseendran, was forwarded by Vigilance ADGP Shaik Darvesh Saheb to Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Nalini Netto seeking permission to file the appeal. Meanwhile, the Vigilance special court handed over the order for further investigation to the Vigilance SP R. S. Sukesan.
