KOCHI: The timing of the arrest of former Public Works Minister VK Ebrahim Kunju has raised many eyebrows. Though there is nothing illegal about the arrest, legal experts called it a political move to corner the Opposition UDF which has been targeting the government with various corruption charges.
Citing the SNC-Lavalin case in which the CBI made Pinarayi Vijayan an accused and filed a chargesheet against him without arresting him, experts doubt whether a case of this nature warrants arrest. “There is nothing wrong in arresting an accused in a case. But the probe agency could have arrested him when an inquiry report was filed before the Muvattupuzha Vigilance court in March 2020 which arraigned him as an accused. In similar cases, an accused is normally arrested for collecting evidence as part of probe. Agencies arrest when they feel that the accused has influence and could tamper with evidence,” said former Director General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali.“In the SNC-Lavalin case, CBI never arrested Pinarayi Vijayan. It could have, but it chose to complete the investigation and file a chargesheet against him,” he said.
A former senior vigilance officer said vigilance normally makes an arrest under the Prevention of Corruption Act when the accused is caught red-handed or when the agency feels the arrest vital for evidence collection. Vigilance sources said that though circumstances warranted Kunju’s arrest in September 2019 when the probe team recovered important evidence against him, the move was scuttled.