Court Stays Kerala Order For Panel To Examine Gold Smuggling Case Probe

Kerala High Court said a parallel inquiry would "derail the investigation" in gold smuggling case.

The Kerala High Court today stayed the order issued by the state government appointing a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to look into any alleged attempt by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to implicate Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the sensational gold smuggling case, saying a parallel inquiry would "derail the investigation" in the matter. The Left government's May 7 notification appointing the CoI was stayed by Justice P B Suresh Kumar on a plea by the ED, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, which had contended that the state was "incompetent" to order such an inquiry as the subject matter fell in Central list of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. The high court said that in such matters if parallel inquiries are carried out, it would "impede and derail the investigation" in the case and that in turn would benefit the accused. The Solicitor General had also told the high court that since the subject matter of the inquiry relates to probes of offences by agencies authorised and empowered to conduct such an investigation, "there cannot be any inquiry into the same by any authority other than the court under whose supervision the investigation was being conducted".