Govt. moves against single judge’s order

The State government on Wednesday filed an appeal before a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court against a single judge’s order quashing the two First Information Reports (FIRs) registered by the Crime Branch (CB) against ‘unnamed officers’ of Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly forcing Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, prime accused in the gold smuggling and money laundering cases, to give false statements against the Chief Minister and other government officials.

The single judge had observed that the Crime Branch could not register FIRs for the offence under Section 193 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) (fabrication of false evidence), against the ED officials in view of the bar under Section 195(1)(b) of Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC).

As per Section 195 (1) (b) of Cr.PC, only the court before which the proceedings in a case were pending could take cognizance of an offence relating to the fabrication of evidence.

The single judge had observed that the proper remedy for the Crime Branch would have been to approach the Special Court under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with the complaint against the ED officials.

It was for the Special Court to look into the statements of Nair and others and decide whether it was expedient to conduct a probe into the allegations regarding the fabrication of evidence by the ED.

The single judge had failed to consider the fact that there was no legal bar in any statute prohibiting the registration of the crime and investigation of the cases involving offences enumerated in Section 195 (1) (b) (i), Cr.PC, the government argued in its appeal.