Kerala High Court reserves verdict on ex-DGP Tomin Thachankery's plea to suspend jail sentence

The Kerala High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a plea by former Director General of Police (DGP) Tomin Thachankary for the suspension of his 4-year jail sentence in a disproportionate assets case [Tomin J Thachakary v. State of Kerala].

Thachankary has sought a suspension of his jail sentence until his appeal against the trial court's conviction and sentence against him is decided by the High Court.

Justice A Badharudeen today reserved his verdict on this question of interim relief.

Notably, the judge also observed that the grant of such interim relief, in some cases, becomes disproportionately favourable to the accused. A conviction in corruption cases itself is an uphill task, the judge pointed out.

"What is happening here is, getting a conviction or a trial itself is a difficult task. Trial will be stalled in multiple ways. Ultimately, even after conviction and sentence, they will easily get released by appellate powers. Then they continue outside without even hearing the appeal. In the meantime, the accused may die and the purpose itself is defeated. That is what is practically happening. I am saying this based on data from the High Court, nothing else. It is a pathetic situation. Are we the protectors of justice?" the judge lamented.

The Court also noted that even after conviction in corruption cases, the accused officials sometimes spend only a little time in jail, after which they are released and allowed to rejoin their posts. While taking critical note of such a trend, the Court added,

"In order to ensure people's faith in the system, the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act must be implemented properly. Here, the corrupt persons go free, and we are not fully able to restrain these activities."

The case against Thachankary stemmed from a complaint filed by Bobby Kuruvila, who claimed to be an anti-corruption crusader. He alleged that Thachankary had acquired houses, flats and other properties during his service disproportionate to his known income.

A vigilance investigation launched subsequently found that Thachankary had acquired assets worth over ₹64 lakh between 2003 and 2007, which were disproportionate to his known income.

Thachankary was convicted and sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Kottayam Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) KV Rajaneesh on September 17.

The trial court found that there was disproportionate income amounting to around ₹30 lakh, which came up to over 50% of his known income at the time.

The trial court also imposed a fine of ₹30.84 lakh on Thachankary, the exact amount of disproportionate assets it found.

Thachankary subsequently moved the present appeal before the Kerala High Court. He simultaneously filed an application to suspend his sentence during the pendency of the appeal.

The Kerala government strongly opposed the appeal as well as Thachankery's plea to suspend his sentence until the appeal is decided.

In his appeal, Thachankary contended that the trial court's verdict is illegal and perverse. He submitted that the trial court took cognisance of the case on the basis of a sanction order of the government which was issued solely on the basis of a supplementary investigation report.

According to Thachankary, there was an earlier sanction order which was withdrawn on the request of the investigating agency. Thachankary claimed that this withdrawn sanction order indicated that the amount of disproportionate assets was around ₹20 lakhs, whereas the amount in the new sanction order was ₹64 lakhs.

Thachankary also questioned the methods adopted by the trial court to calculate his income from various sources. He further argued that the trial court had not considered his wife's income.

Thachankary was represented before the High Court by Senior Advocate B Raman Pillai and advocates S Rajeev, MS Aneer, Sarath KP, Anilkumar CR, KS Kiran Krishnan, Dipa V, Akash Cherian Thomas, TP Araving, Azad Sunil, Akshara S, Nivedita Rajeev and Ebee Antony.

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