Mohammed Hanish appears in court in Cashew Corp graft case, tenders unconditional apology

KOCHI: Former principal secretary (industries) A P Mohammed Hanish appeared in the Kerala High Court in the case connected to the Cashew Development Corporation Graft case. The court asked Hanish to appear in person in connection with the delay in granting permission for the prosecution despite repeated requests. He tendered unconditional apology for the delay in appearing directly. His explanation in the high court was that he failed to understand the orders. Justice Badharudeen asked Hanish if he is not understanding any of the court orders while considering the plea.

The court had criticized Hanish in harsh language last Friday. Don’t play tactics before the court and that it would be compelled to issue an arrest warrant if not appeared in person. In the context of this, he appeared in the court at 10.10 am today. He informed the court that he had resigned from this post and tendered an unconditional apology for the contempt of court action. The case will be considered again on July 2. The final decision on the affidavit containing his apology plea is expected to be taken on that day.

The court has called for an end to the prolonged delay in granting prosecution sanction in the alleged corruption case involving the Kerala Cashew Development Corporation. The court noted that despite repeated directions on three occasions during the previous government's tenure, authorities had maintained that there was insufficient evidence and that prosecution sanction could not be granted. According to the investigation by the CBI, large-scale corruption and misuse of funds occurred in the import of raw cashew nuts by the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation between 2006 and 2015, allegedly causing losses worth crores of rupees. The accused in the case include former corporation chairman R Chandrasekharan and former managing director K A Ratheesh.