E-Paper
Kerala court rejects clean chit to ADGP Ajith Kumar
The inquiry report submitted by the VACB had stated that all the allegations against the former ADGP were found to be fake and that there was no evidence to proceed with criminal charges against him
A special court in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday rejected the inquiry report submitted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) which gave a clean chit to current excise commissioner and former ADGP (law and order) MR Ajith Kumar in a case of alleged amassing of illegal wealth.
The ruling by Manoj A, enquiry commissioner and special judge, in the case came on a complaint filed by Neyyattinkara resident P Nagaraj who alleged that the VACB conducted the inquiry against Ajith Kumar in a “biased, improper, partisan and tainted manner, which caused a miscarriage of justice.”
The inquiry report submitted by the VACB had stated that all the allegations against the former ADGP were found to be fake and that there was no evidence to proceed with criminal charges against him. The Vigilance inquiry was ordered by the LDF government in September last year in the backdrop of a complaint filed by then LDF MLA PV Anvar who alleged that the police officer was building a palatial house in Kowdiar in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram using illegally amassed wealth.
On Thursday, the special court ruled that the VACB manipulated the enquiry to save Ajith Kumar.
“This is a case where a legally constituted authority instead of collecting facts to reveal the truth manipulated the enquiry to save the officer. Moreover the complainant alleged that no enquiry was conducted about the entire assets of his property. If the complaint is dismissed at the threshold, as argued by the public prosecutor, it would be contrary to the ACT, 1988. So this court cannot dismiss the complaint based on the enquiry report,” the court said.
The court underlined that the allegations against Kumar are “beyond suspicion” and that they demonstrate a probability of a crime having been committed.
At the same time, the court said it did not have the power to direct the Director, VACB, to register a case and investigate the offence punishable under PC Act, 1988 (amended in 2018).
