M A I N   N E W S

CVC Thomas may face trial in palm oil scam
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 11
Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) PJ Thomas, who is facing PILs in the Supreme Court seeking his removal, may now have to stand trial in a corruption case in a Kerala court, making his continuance in office even more uncertain.

An apex court Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha today facilitated resumption of the trial by treating as closed an appeal filed by former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran challenging his prosecution in the same case.

Karunakaran’s appeal had “abated” (come to a close) following his death on December 23, 2010, the Bench ruled today. The SC had stayed the trial on August 3, 2007 on Karunakaran’s appeal challenging a state government’s decision. However, with the court closing the case today the interim stay order is no longer valid and this will result in the resumption of the trial in Thiruvananthapuram. The trial court has slated the hearing for tomorrow.

The Congress stalwart and Thomas have been named as accused in a charge sheet filed in 2000 in a case relating to alleged corruption in the import of palm oil from Singapore in 1991-92 when Karunakaran was the CM and Thomas the state Food Secretary. The Karunakaran Cabinet had approved the import of 15,000 tonnes of palm oil at $405 per tonne against the market price of $392.25, causing a loss of Rs 23.2 crore. Thomas had signed the import order.

In 2005, the Congress-led state government had moved the trial court seeking closure of the case, but following change of guard in the assembly elections, the CPI(M)-led regime reversed the decision for dropping the proceedings against Karunakaran, Thomas and six others. Karunakaran had challenged this reversal in the SC which resulted in the stay of the trial.

The appointment of Thomas as CVC, which supervises the CBI functioning, had been objected by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, a member of the appointments’ committee, citing his alleged role in suppressing the 2G scam when he was Telecom Secretary. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister are the other members.

Subsequently, a bunch of PILs were filed in the SC and a Bench, headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia questioned his ability to supervise CBI which investigates corruption cases. Thomas then opted out of monitoring the 2G case.

Another SC Bench, monitoring the CBI investigations in the 2G scam, had sought a list of officials against whom sanction for prosecution was pending. The list did not contain the name of Thomas.