Thrissur Vigilance court judge SS Vasan on Tuesday observed that Chandy, while serving as the Finance Minister in the then Kerala cabinet, was aware of all transactions relating to the palmolein scam.
Being the Finance Minister, Oommen Chandy signed the file, and therefore accused No. 3 and 4 – i.e. Addl Secretary Zachariah Mathews and former chief secretary S Padmakumar, who were bureaucrats – were acquitted because they were just following orders.
The court was considering the petitions filed by these IAS officers after the case came up for hearing following a two-year interval.
The Palmolein case came up in 1991-92. The Vigilance court found that when in the international market, palmolein costs $392.25 per tonne, but the then Kerala government decided to import 15000 tonnes of palmolein for $405 per tonne. As a result, the Kerala government incurred a loss of Rs 2.32 crore.
Though the UDF government decided to withdraw the case in 2005, the later LDF government cancelled the withdrawal. In 2013, the UDF government’s attempt to withdraw the case was also unsuccessful.
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