Delhi High Court Denies Stay on SFIO Investigation Against Kerala CM's Daughter

Synopsis

The Delhi High Court has declined to grant a stay on the Serious Fraud Investigation Office's probe into Veena Vijayan, daughter of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, regarding alleged illegal payments from CMRL to her IT firm, Exalogic, totaling Rs 2.70 crore for mining sanctions.

Key Takeaways

The Delhi High Court refused to stay the SFIO investigation into Veena Vijayan.
Allegations include Exalogic receiving Rs 2.70 crore from CMRL.
The case is set to be heard again on April 22.
The Enforcement Directorate is involved following the SFIO's charge sheet.
Previous petitions challenging the investigation were dismissed.

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, April 9 (NationPress) In a significant setback for Veena Vijayan, the daughter of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday denied a stay on the investigation being conducted by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) regarding allegations that her now-defunct IT enterprise Exalogic received illegal monthly payments amounting to Rs 2.70 crore from Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) for mining permits.

During the proceedings, a bench comprising Justice Girish Kathpalia heard arguments from the SFIO's counsel, who highlighted that the charge sheet had already been submitted to a court in Kochi.

When the judge indicated that there was nothing further to deliberate, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioner CMRL, reminded the court that during a prior session with Justice Subramaniom Prasad, the SFIO had verbally assured that they would cease further actions.

Upon Sibal's assertion, the court reviewed the official documents and noted that there was no record of such an assurance in the court's files.

However, as Sibal reiterated this verbal commitment, the court opted to reschedule the case for April 22 before Justice Prasad, as he was the judge to whom the SFIO had reportedly given this guarantee.

In the meantime, with no stay from the court, Veena Vijayan may encounter difficulties since the Enforcement Directorate has already obtained the charge sheet from the SFIO concerning this illegal payment in the Kochi court.

Following the developments in the Delhi High Court, Kerala BJP leader Shaun George, who is also involved in the case, stated that without a stay, the ED can proceed with the findings outlined in the SFIO charge sheet, as it also involves financial transactions abroad.

The SFIO has consistently asserted in the Delhi High Court that the payments made by CMRL to Exalogic amounted to corruption, meant to facilitate smooth operations for CMRL.

This issue gained attention when a statement from the Income Tax Settlement Board indicated that Exalogic had received these illicit payments without providing any services.

Interestingly, two petitions filed previously in both the Kerala High Court and the Karnataka High Court challenging the SFIO investigation into the CMRL-Exalogic transactions were dismissed.