Government withdraws its revision petition

The State government on Wednesday withdrew its revision petition filed in the Kerala High Court challenging a Kozhikode Judicial First Class Magistrate Court directive to provide copies of the documents and statements of witnesses in a case relating to attempts to sabotage the Kozhikode ice-cream parlour sex scandal case to Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan.

When the petition came up before Justice V.K. Mohanan, Advocate-General K.P. Dandapani sought to withdraw the petition. The court had on an earlier occasion wondered why the government had filed such a petition when it was really a case between K.A. Rauf, a relative of Industries Minister P.K. Kuhnalikutty and an accused in the case, and the Leader of the Opposition.

The case was registered based on the disclosures by K.A. Rauf at a press conference held on January 28, 2011, that the Minister had influenced several key witnesses in the sex scandal to turn hostile for pecuniary benefits.

The action of the government pleader in seeking constant adjournments of hearing on a petition filed by the government itself had also come under fire from the Judge. It had expressed displeasure over the action of the government.

The court dismissed the petition as withdrawn and ordered that the dismissal would not stand in the way of the government initiating “any other legally permissible proceedings if the State has any grievances in connection with the subject matter” of the petition. The Advocate-General earlier sought such an order on these lines.

In its petition, the State government said that Mr. Achuthanandan was 'stranger' to the crime registered in Kozhikode town police station. Therefore, the order of Magistrate was illegal.

The State government pointed out that a copy of the final report in the case had been handed over to the Leader of the Opposition. But the prosecution had not taken objection to this. In fact, a portion of the case diary which was confidential in nature could not be given to anyone and it was prohibited under the Code of Criminal Procedure.