SN Trust case: Kerala High Court deprecates attempt to exonerate accused; orders Magistrate to expedite trial against Vellapally Natesan

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday took exception to what it considered as an attempt to exonerate Sree Narayana (SN) Trust secretary Vellapally Natesan in the case relating to misappropriation of funds connected to the golden jubilee celebration of SN College, Kollam [Surendra Babu v State of Kerala & Anr.]..Single-Judge Ziyad Rahman AA, therefore, set aside an order by the Magistrate court granting permission to conduct further investigation and directed the Magistrate to expedite the trial against Natesan.The High Court noted that the order for further investigation was passed by the Magistrate after a request to that effect was made by a former member of the investigation team.“I find some force in the contention put forward by the learned counsel for the petitioner that there is a calculated attempt to exonerate the accused, a very influential person, without even a trial. This Court cannot be a party to such mischievous attempts,” the Court said. .The prosecution case was based on a complaint by Surendra Babu, a member of the Board of Trustees of SN Trust. As per the complaint, Natesan had misappropriated a substantial portion of the funds collected in 1997-98 for the Golden Jubilee celebrations of SN College, Kollam. Babu had filed a private complaint against Natesan before the Chief Judicial Magistrate for offences punishable under Section 403, 408 and 420 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).Subsequent to this, police had filed closure reports twice but Babu objected to it.Later, he approached the High Court for proper investigation.Thereafter, the High Court handed over the case to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of crime branch, which later filed a final report against the accused, Natesan.However, DSP B Radhakrishnan Pillai who was part of SIT, requested for further investigation pointing out that one of the witnesses had contradicted a statement given during the investigation.Thereafter, Surendra Babu filed the present petition challenging the further investigation sought by the said DSP.The court refused to accept the former DSP’s request for further investigation stating that the veracity of the witness statement has to be examined by a trial court and not through a further investigation.“Merely because the investigation officer is clothed with the power to investigate the matter further, such power cannot be invoked at his whims and fancies. It must be supported by reasons justifiable in law, and in cases where such powers were improperly or maliciously or arbitrarily or with malafide intentions exercised, nothing would preclude this Court from interfering with such proceedings by exercising the powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India,” the Court said.Therefore, the court allowed Babu’s petitions challenging further investigation..Babu was represented by advocate D Anil Kumar.Natesan was represented by advocate P Vijaya Bhanu and AN Rajan Bhanu.The respondents were represented by Additional Public Prosecutor P Narayanan. .[Read Judgment]