The High Court which has recently passed critical remarks on laxity in the Sabarimala gold scam investigation continued to bash the SIT (Special Investigation Team) while denying bail to former TDB officials A Padmakumar and Murari Babu and jeweller Roddam Govardhanan, the accused in the gold misappropriation case on Wednesday. The HC noted that the investigation gathered momentum after the court passed some observations in the earlier bail order. The HC cited that while some of the accused in the case, Vijayakumar and Tantri, were arrested, the arrest of former TDB member, K P Sankar Das, did not materialise till January 4, when his arrest was recorded at the hospital. The court asked what his disease is. Sankar Das, who is the 11th accused in one of the cases, has been shifted to Medical College Hospital under judicial custody after remand. 

The HC raised doubts over the medical condition of Sankar Das. According to the court, it is discernible from the case records that Sankar Das participated in the initial stage of investigation and he appeared before the Investigating Officer without complaints of any health issues since he was not arrayed as an accused at the relevant time. 

"Later, his involvement in this crime was noticed by this Court as on par with Padmakumar. Sankar Das had approached the Apex Court to remove the observations in the earlier bail order passed by this Court and the Apex Court dismissed the said plea. In the meantime, he got impleaded as accused in both crimes and thereafter, he got admitted in a private hospital of his choice complaining of some ailments all of a sudden," the HC stated in the order.

The HC further said that although mere hospitalisation of an accused would not by itself is a reason to avoid arrest as it could be recorded in the hospital, the course of action was not opted by the Investigating Officer for the reasons known to him. The court said that his arrest was delayed indefinitely. "It is judicially noticeable that the son of Sankar Das, has been working as DIG, a higher police official in the State," the HC order said, referring to DIG Harisankar. 

The HC has ordered to give direction to the Medical Superintendent, Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram to form a competent Medical Board of expert doctors and to file a comprehensive report based on the opinion of the Medical Board inclusive of the Medical Board report with specific mention whether such an ailment had been there in as much as Sankar Das is concerned. 

"In the case of Sankar Das, what is his ailment and whether his hospitalisation at the private hospital was required for the treatment of any disease, so also whether he has any present serious ailment to continue his hospitalisation are matters to be ascertained," the court observed.

The HC directed that the report also must contain what the present ailment of Sankar Das is and the treatment with specific assertion as to whether his hospitalisation further more is required and also whether treatment, if any, can be continued inside the jail. The Medical Superintendent has been directed to file the report on or before January 27.

While explaining grounds on which bail was denied, the HC also quoted a Malayalam song, 'Panchagni Madhye Thapassu cheythalumi papa karmathin prathikriyayakumo', which translates as observing penance amid fire wouldn't absolve you of the sins.