Pinarayi Vijayan goes all out against CBI; Petitions High Court to quash the investigation

Pinarayi Vijayan led LDF government has yet again shown its abject resistance to CBI investigations in which the state is in a tight spot. During the time where the public was questioning the state government for spending a fortune resisting CBI investigation on the double murder of Youth Congress Workers, another similar tactics have come to fore. Five days ago, the CBI filed an FIR against the controversial Life Mission Project. On Monday, the sleuths issued notice to the Chief Executive Officer U V Jose, ordering to provide all original documents.

However, the Pinarayi Vijayan government has filed a petition before the Kerala High Court challenging the CBI probe, into the most sought-out project of the state government.  Wadakanchery MLA Anil Akkara whose complaint lead to the CBI FIR  had stated that  Unitac and their sister concern Sane Ventures who won the contract to undertake the construction of the housing project at Wadakkancherry, had directly accepted 10,000 Dirhams ( approximately 20 crores)  foreign contribution from United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Authority.

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However, the state government petition had defended the process by maintaining that the company had not violated the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Enforcing that the CBI probe is politically driven, the petition stated that the FIR has been maliciously instituted with ulterior motives and requests the court to quash the investigation.

Veteran political analyst Advocate A Jayashankar, while speaking to Republic TV, stated that the panic response of the state government is due to political and legal reasons.

"Pinarayi Vijayan is the chairman of Life Mission Project. Already, the CBI has sent a notice to Life Mission CEO U V Jose on October 5 for questioning. The Chief Minister himself, in all likelihood, will be called in for questioning as well," said Jayashankar.

A political analyst in the state agrees that if the CM is called in for questioning, it would bring down all prospectus of CPIM faring well in upcoming local body elections and assembly elections next year. Meanwhile, legal eagles who support the government argue that the petition was filed because CBI investigation was a unilateral decision by the central agency and that they cant take up investigation without the recommendation of the state government or the high court.

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The CBI has registered FIR  under section 35 read with section 3 of FCR Act and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. The complaint by Anil Akkare stated that brokers including state representatives and government officials received Rs 4.5 crores worth as kickbacks. It was also alleged that the construction agency siphoned off an amount of Rs 1.5 crores through illegal alterations in work and Rs 3.5 crores by evading GST, thus causing loss to the central excise.

Meanwhile, CBI has grilled Unitac builder owner Santosh Eapen and his wife. for the second time.

"The government has miserably failed to defend its stand in the eyes of the public as there are dubious MoUs subsequently followed by un-connected agreements and overturning of projects which were originally given to a state-run agency to a private agency. It is all murky," stated Jayashankar.

READ: Life Mission project case: Kerala govt moves SC, demands quashing of 'malicious' CBI FIR

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