HC declines to interfere with Vigilance court order

The Kerala High Court today declined to interfere with the order of a Vigilance court order that a quick verification against Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash be conducted in a land case allegedly involving controversial godman Santhosh Madhavan.
The HC observed that the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau can conduct a "very independent" preliminary inquiry into the case without being influenced by media reports or Facebook posting or any other materials.
Considering a petition challenging the Muvattupu Vigilance court order in the case, Justice P Ubaid said "in the present circumstances where there is no direction to register a crime, I find no necessity of any interim order at this stage."

The High Court noted that the petitioner and others are not now accused in a crime." They are only respondents in the proceedings and it is yet to be looked and decided whether they can be prosecuted on the complaint."
"Bearing all these aspects in mind, the vigilance officer shall conduct a proper, legal, honest and impartial inquiry, considering all the government orders also, and submit the report," the judge said.
The vigilance Court had early this week ordered quick verification on a petition filed by one Gireesh Babu seeking probe against six persons including Prakash and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

The petitioner approached the court alleging corruption in the case, a week after the state government cancelled its order returning 112 acres of government-owned surplus land to Santhosh Madhavan for industrial purpose.
The court, which exempted the Chief Minister from the preliminary inquiry, had ordered preliminary probe against minister Prakash, top revenue official Vishwas Mehta, Santhosh Madhavan and a businessman B M Jayasankar.