KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the Excise Department for implicating a 62-year-old innocent woman, hailing from Kayamakulam, in a spirit case, the High Court on Tuesday directed the Excise Inspector, Kayamkulam Range, to personally appear before the court on August 8.
The court issued a notice to Excise Inspector S Pramod who implicated the woman despite the knowledge the spirit in question was concealed at a place outside her house by Manoj, the first accused, owing to personal enmity.
The court issued the order on a petition filed by Radhamani, Keerikkadu, Kayamkulam, seeking to quash the criminal case against her under section 64A of the Abkari Act (allowing land, building, room, etc for manufacturing, sale or storing for sale of liquor or intoxicating drug).
Petitioner’s counsel K R Sunil submitted Radhamani and her children were living in fear of attack from the spirit mafia. Manoj, who is involved in several criminal cases, had threatened her to implicate her in Abkari case to wreak vengeance on her. Though she lodged several complaints with the police and the Chief Minister, no action was taken, the counsel said.
According to her, based on an information, the Excise Commissioner’s squad seized 20 litres of spirit from her house and 33 litres of spirit from a nearby property owned by Umadevi. The Excise Department registered a case in the incident and entrusted the probe with Excise Inspector S Pramod. Since the contraband was seen in an abandoned condition, they could not trace its owner. Later, they arrested Manoj and his statement was recorded.
Later, they registered a case against Radhamani, but did not implicate Umadevi. Radhamani was falsely implicated by the Excise Department at the behest of the first accused, the petition stated. The court observed this was a typical case of misuse of power.
Hence, the court wanted to hear the Excise Inspector, who submitted the final report in the case implicating the petitioner despite the knowledge she was innocent.
The court also directed the prosecution to file a report regarding the circumstance under which the final report happened to be submitted against the petitioner despite the clear findings made by the Excise Inspector that she was innocent. The court also stayed further proceedings against the petitioner for a month.
GNPC case: HC seeks govt view on bail plea
Kochi: The High Court on Tuesday sought the view of the state government on the petition filed by Vinitha of Thiruvananthapuram, one of the administrators of the Facebook group ‘Glassile Nurayum Platile Curryum’ (GNPC), seeking anticipatory bail in a case registered against her for allegedly promoting the use of liquor. The court posted the case to Thursday.
Sarfaesi protester’s bail: Govt view sought
Kochi: The High Court on Tuesday sought the state government’s view on the bail petition filed by five accused persons in a case registered by the Kalamassery police in connection with the protest against the Sarfaesi Act and the attachment of the property of Preetha Shaji in Pathadippalam. The petition was filed by Manuval, Palarivattom, V C Jenny, Varappuzha, Prakash, Idukki, Vijeesh, Muvattupuzha, and Jayakumar, Alappuzha, seeking bail.