THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance Court here gave time till January 23 to Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan to file more documents concerning his petition seeking investigation against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the controversial Patoor land scam.
When the case came up for hearing before the court, counsel for Achuthanandan sought more time to submit certain documents pertaining to the case.
The court then postponed the hearing of the case to January 23.
In his petition, Achuthanandan had alleged that it was quite evident that the chief minister, along with some officials, had helped the real estate group to take over public land. He had asked the court to direct the Vigilance to register an FIR against Chandy and others.
Achuthanandan, in his petition, had alleged that Chandy and others had abused their position as public servants and by corrupt and illegal means helped realtors. He also said that the chief minister and others had taken a hasty decision in shifting the pipeline that went under the building, defying the reports of the Vigilance as well as the Water Resources Department that the land belonged to the latter.
It was also submitted that the Constitution or the Rules of Business of Government of Kerala did not confer power on the chief minister to freely intervene in the affairs of the portfolio of a minister. Achuthanandan also alleged that Chandy had intervened at a stage when the Water Resources Department decided to reject the shifting of the pipeline and called back the file.
In the petition, he also submitted that the realtors, with the connivance of public servants, created documents to legalise the land under the Water Authority in their name. And in the attempt, they got the pumping line that was going across the company's property shifted to revenue land.