New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: Firebrand Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader K.M. Shaji on Tuesday got a huge relief when the Supreme Court upheld the Kerala High Court judgment quashing the bribery and money laundering cases against him.
A former two-time legislator, Shaji, 52, is one of the ruling CPI-M’s foremost political opponents in Kerala on account of the strong positions he has taken against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the murder cases in Kannur district where the CPI-M workers are involved.
A bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih on Tuesday dismissed the special leave petitions filed against the High Court verdict by the Kerala government and the Directorate of Enforcement.
The case was Shaji had accepted a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from the manager of Azhikode Higher Secondary School, Kannur, for sanctioning a Plus Two course in 2014-15.
The complaint was given by local CPI-M leader K.Padmanabhan and the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had registered an FIR against Shaji under Sections 7 and 13(1)(d), read with 13(2), of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Following the Vigilance registering the case, the ED registered a case under the PMLA Act and they also joined the Kerala government against Shaji in the apex court.
The Supreme Court reviewed statements from 54 witnesses recorded during the investigation and Justice Oka observed that none of the statements indicated that Shaji personally demanded or received money.
“You recorded 54 statements. Not a single witness says that the demand was made in his presence and money was paid to him, not a single witness. 50 witnesses, including the manager… we have gone through the entire record. All hearsay that somebody else told me that money was demanded. Not a whisper about the demand made by the respondent,” he noted.
“If we allow this, any politician can be roped in…” he said.
The court refused to accept the arguments of both the ED and the Kerala government and dismissed the SLP challenging the High Court order quashing the money laundering case against Shaji arising from the bribery allegations noting that it has upheld quashing of the bribery case.
IUML leader and Rajya Sabha member Harris Beeran said this case originated at the behest of Chief Minister Vijayan and others who are against Shaji for his tirades against the CPI-M and they used all the powers with them to target Shaji, but he has come out clean.
(IANS)
