Kerala's top bureaucrat moves Supreme Court in palmolein import scam case

NEW DELHI: Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson today moved the Supreme Court challenging his trial in the 23-year-old palmolein import scam case, saying there was no valid sanction to prosecute him.

A bench comprising Justices T S Thakur and R Banumathi, without issuing the notice on the plea of Thomson, ordered tagging of his plea with the pending plea of former CVC P J Thomas in the case.

Thomson, in his plea, has said that no sanction under section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been taken to prosecute him in the case.

The plea of former IAS officer P J Thomas, seeking quashing of the scam case is pending in the apex court, and Thomson's petition would now be heard together.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court on January 8 had declined to accept the state government's plea to withdraw prosecution in the multi-crore palmolein import scam case.

The case related to import of palmolein during 1991-92 at 'inflated' price by the then Congress Government headed by late K Karunakaran from a Malaysian firm allegedly causing a loss of Rs 2.33 crore to the state exchequer. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was the Finance Minister then.