Kerala HC turns down Achuthanandan`s plea for early hearing

The Kerala High Court turned down the plea of veteran Marxist leader VS Achuthanandan for an early hearing of his plea for CBI probe in the `Ice Cream Parlour sabotage case`, and posted it after May 23.

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday turned down the plea of veteran Marxist leader VS Achuthanandan for an early hearing of his plea for CBI probe in the `Ice Cream Parlour sabotage case`, and posted it after May 23.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Vinod Chandran refused Achuthanandan`s plea and posted the case after vacation. Achuthanandan, meanwhile, filed 25 additional documents in the case, claiming that they would show that investigation was faulty, Special Investigation Team had acted with "pre-conceived notion and deliberate bias" and had "miserably failed" to book the guilty parties. The petitioner had approached the court seeking a CBI probe into a case registered on the basis of claims by a relative of state minister PK Kunhalikutty that he had tried to influence witnesses in the `ice cream parlour sex scandal`. He had filed a memo requesting posting of the case on March 25 as a senior counsel from Delhi had been engaged for appearing in the High Court. The sex scandal had rocked Kerala in the late 1990s when it came to light that an ice cream parlour in Kozhikode was being used to lure women into prostitution. There were allegations about Kunhalikutty`s involvement in the case but he did not figure as accused in the case. PTI