Gold, dollar smuggling allegations against Chief Minister; HC rejects plea seeking investigation

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has rejected the plea seeking a probe into the gold and dollar smuggling allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas rejected the plea submitted by HRDS secretary Aji Krishnan. The court also upheld the state government's claim that the plea will not stand.

The court rejected the claim that the investigation was not going in the right direction. Court supervision is not required for the probe. It also said that the petitioner was not able to produce any evidence to show that the probe was not going in the right direction.

The division bench has decided on similar petitions. The court does not think that the matter raised by the petitioner was not of public interest. However, the petitioner did not present any new evidence for the court to order a re-investigation of the matter already decided by the court. The court said that it is satisfied with the investigation progress report submitted by the Centre regarding the investigations conducted by the central agencies. The concern that a probe will not take place against big guns is baseless, the court said.