Taking a defiant stance, Opposition leader Oommen Chandy on Tuesday flung a challenge at the Left Democratic government, asking it to arraign him in the palmolein case straightaway if it had sufficient evidence.
The LDF government has launched further investigations into the case which relates to the import of palm oil from Malaysia by the Karunakaran government in 1992, when Mr Chandy was the finance minister.
Mr Chandy said the government could have invoked Criminal Procedure Code section 319 and moved the court to arraign him. But there was no shred of evidence against him, which was why the government had moved only a two-line plea before the vigilance for “a further probe”.
Mr Chandy said that if the intention was not to create a smokescreen on the eve of the polls, the government should explain its inaction for the past 20 years.
The Opposition leader added that his alleged involvement in the import decision was examined and disposed of by the Vigilance Bureau at the highest level while the late E. K. Nayanar was chief minister in 1998.
The fresh evidence which the vigilance brought to the court was in the form of his statement as the Chief Minister in 2005 and discharge petitions submitted by the other accused.
“I had said that I knew everything about the decision, and this has been distorted to mean that I knew everything about the deal,” said Mr Chandy.