New Delhi: The Kerala high court on Wednesday said it would not stay an FIR registered by the state police against unnamed officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The officials, according to the crime branch FIR, had coerced Swapna Suresh to make false allegations against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other state ministers in the gold smuggling case.

However, the high court also said that the police should not take coercive action against any officials until the next date of hearing, April 8, Bar and Bench reported.

ED deputy director P. Radhakrishnan has filed a plea asking the Kerala high court to quash the state police FIR or alternatively to transfer the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, argued before Justice V.G. Arun that the FIR should stay because the police case was hampering the ED’s investigations in the gold smuggling case. The state police’s actions, he argued, go against cooperative federalism.

“If this is permitted, there will be a complete absence of rule of law. Can local police go behind NIA officials and arrest them. If that is so, the fair and impartial investigation will not be possible,” Mehta said, according to Bar and Bench.

“She (Swapna Suresh) is not an illiterate lady without legal assistance. She has not given any statement that she was pressurized. She had opportunities to speak about alleged coercion before the court. She did not have to wait for the audio recording. She had defended herself on merits during bail plea,” Mehta argued. “On August 17, the court specifically asked whether she had any complaint and she said she did not. Two invisible lady constables have now said ‘in our presence she was pressurized.”
Mehta also called the police probe “absurd” and the Code of Criminal Procedure does not envisage a situation in which one investigation agency is conducting the inquiry, and another agency also gets involved and investigates it.

“If this kind of FIR is allowed, it is the end of rule of law whereby one agency would nullify evidence collected by another agency before court examines it. If this is allowed, central agencies cannot fearlessly investigate matters in State,” he said.

Advocate Hari Raval, appearing for the state of Kerala, argued that the petition was not maintainable as the proper procedure hadn’t been followed while filing it. “If the petition is filed to protect the government department, then procedure requires sanction to be taken from the dept and should be clearly mentioned. The petition filed is not in the manner prescribed,” he said, according to Bar and Bench.

The Kerala police probe, Raval continued, will not affect the ED’s gold smuggling investigation in any way. “Statements of Swapna Suresh or other accused is not the subject matter of probe. Our case is that in questioning those accused, there was an attempt to create false evidence against some other highly placed dignitaries. Hence, it is wrong to say State has no jurisdiction,” he said.

Justice Arun said that he would not be able to complete the hearing in one day due to paucity of time. “We have to see the outcome of the hearing, to ascertain how far it is affecting the ED case,” he said, according to LiveLaw.

“As the matter is being adjourned due to the paucity of time, I deem it appropriate that the investigating agency does not proceed with coercive steps in respect of the proceedings pending before this court,” the judge said.