Thrissur: The vigilance court here on Tuesday, while initiating the trial proceedings in the alleged palmolein import scam, came down heavily on the second accused and former civil supplies minister T.H. Musthafa for not turning up at the court.
Special judge S.S. Vassan asked in the open court whether a warrant needs to be issued for the former minister to attending the trial proceedings.
Along with Mr Musth-afa, the sixth, seventh and eighth accused were absent on Tuesday.
Counsel for Mr Musthafa told the judge that his client could not turn up due to ill health. The court would take up the case again on May 30. The new judge assigned for the court will be then hearing the case.
Former chief secretary Jiji Thomson, who was MD of civil supplies during the import of palmolein in 1991-92, was present in the court. He is the fifth accused in the case. After the import of the palmolein, the CAG had come up with an estimated loss of '2.32 crore to the state exchequer over the deal.
Before starting the trial, the court had in February acquitted former chief secretary S. Padmakumar and additional chief secretary Zachariah Mathew, who were the third and fourth accused in the case citing that they were only following the orders of the government.
The lawyers of all the accused presented their arguments on Tuesday contenting that there was no evidence against their clients and brought to the notice of the court that some ruling of Mumbai and Karnataka High Court that CAG report could not be treated as the last word.
