The High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to quash the Thrissur Vigilance court order, rejecting a plea to register corruption cases against forest and police officials for not taking action against actor Mohanlal in connection with the seizure of ivory tusks from his house.
Justice P Bhavadasan, while dismissing a petition filed by Pramod of Thrissur, observed that no offence under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act had been made out in the complaint filed before the Vigilance court
There was nothing to show that the state government or its officials had acted in favour of the actor. Besides, the petitioner had not been able to point out any illegality or irregularities in the investigation, it observed.
Advocate-General K P Dandapani submitted that the petition was filed to gain cheap publicity.
The court said there was no material to show that the former Minister for Forests Ganesh Kumar had gone out of way to unduly favour Mohanlal.
“All he did was to write a letter to the Centre pointing out certain difficulties faced by elephant owners and to legalise their possession.The request was out rightly rejected by the Centre.Ganesh Kumar had not, in any manner, exercised his power to favour Mohanlal,” it said.“There is little public interest in the petition and it is more publicity-oriented. It is a clear case where exemplary cost will be imposed on the petitioner. But probably he was ill-advised to file the petition,” the court observed.
Mohanlal’s counsel K R Radhakrishnan Nair said that the complaint was not filed by the petitioner before the Vigilance court, hence he has no locus standi to challenge the order.
