Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday stayed the further proceedings in the Vigilance probe into the promotion of N. Shanker Reddy as Director, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, by the previous UDF government.
The court also directed the VACB to report the details of the complaints made by litigant Paichira Navaz against several persons in different courts in Kerala. It criticised the VACB and observed that it has no special power as it is part of the police. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan warned the VACB to be cautious while handling petitions to avoid further strictures from the court.
The state submitted that there was no scope to proceed in this case under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Recording the submission, the court stayed all further proceedings until further orders.
The court was considering a petition filed by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala seeking to quash the order of the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court to conduct a probe against him in a case relating to the appointment of N. Shankar Reddy as Director, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Burea. The Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court had ordered a probe against Chennithala on a petition filed by Paichira Navaz alleging that the previous government had appointed Reddy as Vigilance director while he was holding the post of additional deputy-general of police.
Chennithala contended that Paichira Navaz is a frequent litigant and argued that Navaz had moved the court against him at the instance of some interested IPS/IAS officers, that too by targeting their opponents in the ongoing feud between a group of IPS and IAS officers in the state. It is submitted that the complainant has no locus-standi to file the complaint of the above nature under the disguise of public interest litigant.
He submitted through former Director- General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali that the allegations made in the complaint are totally false. "Even if the allegations are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety, the facts alleged in the complaint do not constitute any cognizable offence warranting any preliminary enquiry, he said.
CM issues warning
In a hurriedly-convened meeting of top Vigilance officials subsequent to the High Court criticism on the functioning of Vigilance, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directed that all fresh petitions should be initially sent to the internal vigilance cell of the departments concerned. Further investigations should be carried out only afterwards.
Mr. Vijayan also directed the senior officers that any case should be registered by the Vigilance only with the concurrence of the director. Attempts to tarnish the image of officers in the name of Vigilance enquiries should be checked, he said.
Considering the High Court remarks against public litigant Paichira Navaz, he also directed the Vigilance legal officers to examine the scope of bringing to the attention of the court the numerous petitions being filed by Navaz , allegedly with vested interest.
There were also unconfirmed reports that the chief minister flayed the supervisory lapses on the part of the Vigilance director Jacob Thomas.
Apart from Mr. Thomas, all senior VACB officers in the rank of superintendents of police and above from even northern districts had rushed to the meeting. Additional chief secretary (Home) Nalini Netto was also present.
