A special court will decide on the merit of a complaint that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials forcefully procured evidence to implicate the Chief Minister in the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case, after hearing both the ED and the Crime Branch.
Incidentally, the Crime Branch had booked a case against the ED officials for allegedly procuring false evidence by forcing Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, accused in the case, to name Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the case.
C.S. Sudha, the Principal District Judge, who is also the Special Judge for the cases booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, on Thursday posted the case for July 2 for hearing, considering the plea of the ED.
The Kerala High Court had earlier directed the special court to look into the case while considering a petition moved by P. Radhakrishnan, the Additional Director of the ED, seeking to quash the First Information Report booked by the Crime Branch against him. The High Court also asked the Crime Branch to submit all the relevant documents to the special court.
The special court can order an inquiry under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to determine whether the complaint of the Crime Branch would stand against the ED officials. The court, if prima facie satisfied that the ED had procured false evidence, can frame and forward the complaint to a First Class Magistrate to book a case.
T.A. Unnikrishnan, the lawyer of the Directorate, sought a month for filing a detailed affidavit in the case.
