Supreme Court stays CMRL bribery probe against Pinarayi Vijayan for a week

The Supreme Court stayed the CMRL bribery investigation against Pinarayi Vijayan and his family for one week. The interim relief enables them to challenge the single judge's order before a Kerala High Court division bench.

In Short

• Kerala vigilance bureau registered two FIRs against Vijayan and family members
• Enforcement Directorate alleged fraudulent payments worth Rs 2.78 crore to Exalogic
• Payments were allegedly disguised as fees for unprovided IT consultancy services

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed for a week the investigation against former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter Veena T and her husband P A Mohamed Riyas in the alleged CMRL bribery case, the Press Trust of India reported.

A bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana allowed Vijayan and the others to approach a division bench of the Kerala High Court against an order passed by a single judge.

On October 15, the Kerala High Court rejected applications filed by Vijayan, Veena and Riyas seeking permission to appeal against the single judge's October 9 order. The court held that "an accused in a corruption case has no legal right to be heard before registering the FIR".

In their appeals before the High Court, the three claimed that the single judge had not heard them before directing the registration of the FIR.

They also argued that the petition on which the single judge passed the October 9 order was in the form of a public interest litigation and should, therefore, have been heard by a division bench dealing with such matters.

According to PTI, the appeals were filed after the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau's Special Investigation Unit-1 registered two FIRs against Vijayan and his family members in connection with the case.

On October 9, the Kerala High Court directed the bureau to register a case based on a report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate to the state police.

The Enforcement Directorate had sought the registration of a case based on evidence gathered during its investigation and searches conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The agency alleged that CMRL made fraudulent payments of Rs 2.78 crore to Veena's now-defunct company, Exalogic Solutions, under the guise of providing IT consultancy services.

The Supreme Court's order pauses the investigation for a week and allows Vijayan, Veena and Riyas to challenge the single judge's order before a division bench of the Kerala High Court.

- Ends