KOCHI: In a setback to the Kerala government, the Kerala High Court on Friday quashed two FIRs registered by the crime branch of the state police against 'unnamed officers' of Enforcement Directorate based on the revelation by Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, accused persons in the gold smuggling case, stating that the ED officers had forced them to give statement against Chief Minister of Kerala.
While disposing of the petitions filed by P Radhakrishnan, deputy director, Enforcement Directorate, Kochi seeking to quash the FIRs, Justice V G Arun observed that the bar under Section 195 (1) (b) of the CrPC is applicable to the offences mentioned in the two FIRs. The remedy of the aggrieved person is to approach the Special Court, it said.
"Either on being alerted through an application or on getting information regarding the commission of the offence under section 195 (1) (b), the jurisdictional court can conduct a preliminary enquiry and form an opinion on whether it is expedient to conduct an inquiry," the court said. Further, if convinced about the need for an inquiry, the court can record its finding to that effect and make a complaint in writing and send it to the magistrate of first-class having jurisdiction for taking further action, it said.
As far as these cases are concerned, the special court has already received a complaint from Sandeep Nair, an accused in the gold smuggling case and had allowed the application submitted by the crime branch to question him in jail.
The Bench opined that while interdicting the police from conducting the investigation, the interest of justice requires that the special judge be permitted to look into the materials collected by the crime branch, treating it as the information, so as to decide whether it is expedient to conduct an inquiry. Hence, the FIRs and further proceedings initiated by the crime branch police station are quashed.
The investigating officers shall forthwith submit all the records pertaining to the crimes before the special court in a sealed cover. The Special Judge can look into those records and other materials if any available while deciding whether it is expedient to conduct an inquiry.
Appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India had submitted that the Kerala police are fabricating evidence against ED officers to stall the investigation in the money laundering case which is at a crucial stage where names of some 'highly placed persons' are getting unearthed. The FIRs were filed with a malicious intention and ulterior motive or derailing the ongoing investigation in the gold smuggling case. The registration of FIRs against officers of ED is a blatant counter-blast to the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and subversion of Rule of Law.
ED had further submitted that there can be no fresh investigation on receipt of every subsequent information with regard to the same alleged offence or incident. The petition against the first FIR is pending before the court. The registration of the second FIR is an abuse of the process of law and a clear attempt to overreach the pending proceedings before the court.
The state government had argued that both the FIRs were different and on a different set of facts. The two FIR is not in any way connected to each other. The first FIR was registered based on an audio clip of Swapna Suresh, while the second one was registered based on the complaint filed by Sandeep Nair.