New Delhi: In a setback for Veena Vijayan, daughter of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined to grant a stay on the probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) regarding allegations that her now-defunct IT firm, Exalogic, received monthly payments of approximately Rs 2.70 crore from Kochi-based Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) for mining sanctions.
During the hearing, Justice Girish Kathpalia addressed the case, where the SFIO’s counsel noted that a charge sheet had already been submitted to a court in Kochi. The court indicated that there was no further action required at that time.
However, as the judge was about to conclude the session, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing CMRL, argued that when the case was previously examined by Justice Subramaniom Prasad, the SFIO had verbally assured the court that no further actions would be taken.
In response to Sibal’s comments, the court reviewed the judicial records and noted that there was no documentation supporting such an assurance. When Sibal reiterated the assertion, the court opted to reschedule the case for April 22 before Justice Prasad because it was to this judge that the SFIO had supposedly given the assurance.
With the court’s refusal to impose a stay, Veena Vijayan could face challenges since the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already received the charge sheet from the SFIO regarding the alleged illegal gratification at the Kochi court.
Reacting to the developments, Kerala BJP leader Shaun George, who is also a party in the case, stated that with no stay granted, the ED could proceed with the findings in the SFIO charge sheet, which involves international money transfers.
The SFIO has consistently maintained that the payments made by CMRL to Exalogic amounted to corruption, intended to facilitate smooth operations for CMRL. This issue first emerged when a statement from the Income Tax Settlement Board indicated that Exalogic had received these illegal payments without providing any services.
Notably, two separate petitions challenging the SFIO investigation into the CMRL-Exalogic transactions were previously dismissed by the Kerala High Court and the Karnataka High Court.
