THIUVANANTHAPURAM: Merchiston Estate owner Xavi Mano Mathew has termed Forest Minister Binoy Viswam’s intervention in the case related to the ISRO-Merchiston deal as "illegal" and a "violation of the oath of office".
Xavi said that he had already initiated legal measures against Binoy Viswam.
"To publicly intervene in a case under the consideration of the courts is to encroach into the ambit of law. The Minister, by making certain public statements, was attempting to influence investigating officers and to prevent the smooth functioning of the court. It is the court which has to pronounce its verdict on the basis of the merits of the case," Xavi told reporters at a press conference here on Tuesday.
The Forest Minister on April 18 had said that he had asked the Home Department not to write off the Merchiston Estate case. "The Forest Department has a clear stand in the case. If any police officer prepares and submits a report without taking the opinion of all the departments concerned, it will not have any legal validity," Binoy Viswam said on Monday.
According to Xavi, the police which had probed the conspiracy angle in the Merchiston-ISRO deal had submitted a refer report in the court saying that the charge was fabricated. "Binoy Viswam, in order to keep up a goody-goody image, has now gone ahead and perpetrated an illegal act," Xavi said.
A similar private petition was filed in the Thrissur Vigilance Court in which Xavi said the basic charge was that Forest Minister Binoy Viswam, Labour Minister PK Gurudasan and himself had conspired in the Merchiston-ISRO deal.
"The petition was rejected by the Vigilance Court on the ground that there was prima facie no evidence. The petitioner then went to court which later ruled that Merchiston land was purchased and sold by me in a legal manner and also that the cutting down of trees for factory purposes was legal," Xavi said and added: "When this verdict was out the Forest Minister gloated that he had been vindicated, smartly concealing the fact that I too was exonerated."
But in the other case, the one in which the Minister has now intervened, Xavi said the Minister was adopting a hypocritical stand. He then said that the conspiracy cases were not the real Merchiston case.
"That one is now in the High Court. I had gone to the High Court in 2007 against the Forest Department’s move to take over the estate under the EFL Act. The High Court had stayed the Department’s action. The case has been postponed 62 times at the behest of the Forest Department. When the case was taken in March this year, Additional Advocate-General Ranjith Thampan, who is also a CPI leader, sought a postponement to June," Xavi said and added: "The State Government should come clear on why it was playing hide and seek in the court."
He alleged the state had lost crores as a consequence of Binoy Viswam’s illegal interventions.
"He cried foul when I sold land at Rs 4 lakh an acre. After blocking this deal, he went ahead and purchased land at the rate of Rs 31.5 lakh an acre. The Minster should answer the loss he had caused the exchequer as a result of this," Xavi said.
BINOY’S FOREIGN LINKS: Xavi also called for a Central investigation into the foreign connections of the Forest Minister who had been trying as best as he could to put hurdles in the way of the country’s space research.