The Kerala High Court in Tuesday came down on the investigating officer of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) probing the nepotism case against former minister E P Jayarajan.
The court was considering petitions filed by Jayarajan and P K Sudheer alias Sudheer Nambiar, seeking to dismiss the FIR filed against them by the VACB.
Sudheer, who is the son of Jayarajan's wife's sister and Kannur MP P K Sreemathy , was appointed as Kerala State Industrial Enterprises MD but the order was later cancelled by the government when it became controversial, reported the Times of India.
The High Court asked VACB to explain how this case comes under the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act. For a prosecution, the public servant or somebody else must have gained some pecuniary advantage or valuable thing. However, in this case, the order was cancelled within three days.Therefore, the investigating officer should convincingly report as to what exactly is the monetary benefit or valuable thing meant by him to launch a prosecution, the court ordered, reported the Times of India.
Since the High Court had stayed further proceedings in the case last April, on Tuesday it observed that VACB cannot close the case either.
Court also warned VACB that an investigation should not be done to please the public or the media and it cannot be used for any political gains. The court said that the government should make sure that the law is implemented properly.
It was in January 2017 that VACB registered a case against EP Jayarajan as the first accused and Sudheer as the second accused in the case.