THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena has sought legal opinion on the state government’s decision to constitute a judicial commission to investigate the central agencies’ action for allegedly “sabotaging the probe” into the gold smuggling and other cases.
The government in its special cabinet meeting last week had decided to initiate a judicial probe against the central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate. Retired judge K C Mohan has been assigned to head the commission. However, the decision required affirmation from the Election Commission as the code of conduct is in place in the wake of the impending assembly polls. The file pertaining to the decision was handed over to the State Electoral Officer last week by a three-member committee headed by the chief secretary.
“The CEO will take a call on the decision based on the legal opinion. In case there is some ambiguity even after the legal opinion is taken, the matter will be left to the Central Election Commission. This would take some time,” a source said.
The government decided to take the unprecedented step following the registration of a criminal case against the Enforcement Directorate officials by the Crime Branch for allegedly forcing gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh to give statements against the chief minister. The government’s stance was that the central agencies probing the smuggling and dollar cases had conspired against the state government and hence a judicial probe was required to unearth the plot.
The Crime Branch had registered another case against the ED officials on the basis of a complaint that the officials of the central agency had arm-twisted Sandeep Nair, another accused in the gold smuggling case, to give statements against the CM and other ministers.