New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the CBI on a plea filed by CEO of Life Mission Project of the Kerala government challenging the High Court order allowing probe by the central agency into the corruption allegations in the State's housing Project, which envisages total housing for the homeless.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Hemant Gupta and R Subhash Reddy issued notice to the CBI and sought its response within four weeks including on the aspect of interim relief of stay sought by the petitioner.
Issue notice limited to the order of the High Court in as well as on the prayer for interim relief, returnable in four weeks, the bench said.
During the hearing, senior advocate K V Vishwanathan, appearing for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Life Mission Project, said that government projects are exempted under the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA).
He said that the CBI investigation in the case is contrary to the spirit of federalism and the FIR registered by the probe agency has no basis.
Vishwanathan said that the CBI needs either the sanction of the State government or an order of the court to investigate a crime within the jurisdiction of the State.
He said that under the pretext of corruption and FCRA violations, CBI has been conducting a roving inquiry on completely baseless allegations.
The bench said it is seeking a response from the CBI on the limited aspect of the challenge to the High Court order and on the interim relief sought by the petitioner.
On January 12, the Kerala High Court had dismissed a petition challenging the CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the project which is a massive housing campaign to build houses for families without land or housing.
In the project, emphasis will be on financial empowerment and providing means of livelihood. All landless and homeless will be rehabilitated.
The CBI had registered an FIR for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and under the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 on a complaint by Congress MLA Anil Akkara, listing Santhosh Eappen, Managing Director of Unitac Builder, as main accused and Sane Ventures as second accused.
Noting that the MoU between LIFE Mission and UAE Red Crescent was to provide AED 10 million financial aid to construct housing units and a health centre for victims of the recent Kerala floods, the high court had said no subsequent agreements were entered into between the fund provider and the acceptor.
"The very nature of the mischief done in furtherance of MoU would suggest involvement of highly educated professionals--a mastermind behind it", it had said.
As per the MoU, UAE Red Crescent agreed to provide AED 10 million, of which 7 million was to build homes for flood victims and AED 3 million for construction of a health centre.
The high court had found fault with two subsequent agreements entered into by Consular General of UAE, Thiruvananthapuram and Unitac Builders and Developers and Sane Ventures LLP, headed by Santhosh Eappen.
Neither the UAE Red Crescent nor the state government or LIFE Mission is a party to the two subsequent agreements entered into for implementation of MoU signed by LIFE Mission (state government with UAE Red Crescent", it had said.
On the agreement signed between the UAE Consular General and Unitac Builders and Developers and Sane Ventures LLP to construct a building in state government-owned property, the high court had said it was suspected to be meant to divert the funds to a third person without the intervention of either the government or UAE Red Crescent by avoiding CAG audit to get kickbacks and gratifications.
The high court had said it is seemed to be so unfortunate that the agreements were accepted by the CEO, LIFE Mission.
It had further said the foreign contribution provided by UAE Red Crescent was effectively diverted by manipulating two agreements and inducting strangers, without the juncture of fund provider and the beneficiary so as to get kickbacks and with the active connivance and help of IAS officials connected with the project, including the CEO of LIFE Mission, who had provided and offered all sorts of help and facilitated it.
The high court, however, had said, the mere fact that policy decisions were taken by the Chief Minister, the ministers or the Legislature may not by itself be sufficient to extend criminal liability against them for the wrong done by the non-political executive attached with the project and their allies.
The alleged FCRA violation and corruption in the project had snowballed into a major political issue with opposition parties alleging that Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the gold smuggling case, had admitted before an NIA court that she had received Rs 1 crore as commission from the project.
