Kerala High Court quashes FIRS against ED

KOCHI: Citing procedural lapses, Kerala High court (HC) on Friday quashed the two FIRS registered by the state police Crime Branch against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials over charges of forcing the accused to take the name of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in connection with the gold smuggling case.

Quashing the FIRS, the court held that police should have approached the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA) court, which is considering the cases related to the money trail in the gold smuggling, seeking a remedy to their grievances that the ED officials were fabricating evidence.

Justice VG Arun of the HC quashed two first information reports (FIR) the state police registered against “unnamed officials” of the Enforcement Directorate.

The FIRS had accused the agency investigating financial crimes of coercing the alleged smuggling kingpins to give incriminating statements against Vijayan and others.

The judge held that the cognizance of an offence relating to the fabrication of evidence in a mater pending before a court can be taken only on the basis of its complaint.

The judgement said the state police could not have registered the FIRS for offences relating to false evidence and they can only approach the special court dealing with it.

It pointed out that the special court has already received the complaint of an accused Sandeep Nair and allowed the police to question him in jail.

“The 161 Statement of Sandeep Nair recorded thereater was made available to me in a sealed cover,” it says.

“The interest of justice requires the special judge to permit a look into the materials collected by the crime branch (of the police) treating it as a petition.” The court directed them to submit all records before the special court in a sealed cover.

Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, appearing for the petitioner had argued that if this kind of FIR was allowed to be filed, central agencies could not do a fair and fearless investigation.

He further contended that an investigating agency could not nullify an investigation being conducted by another agency before a competent court examined the mater.

Deputy director of ED Kochi Zone, P Radhakrishnan had approached the court challenging the two FIRS registered by the Crime Branch.

The FIRS were based on an audio clip by gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh alleging she was coerced to implicate the chief minister in the case.