The Kerala Government led by Pinarayi Vijayan of the CPI(M) which is in the last days of its five-year tenure is suffering setbacks after setbacks from the judiciary as well as Lok Ayukta which has forced the party commissars to press  the panic button.

On Friday, the Kerala High Court quashed two FIRs registered by the Crime Branch of the State Police against ‘unnamed officials’ of the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly coercing the accused in gold smuggling case to give false and incriminating statements implicating the chief minister and other functionaries in the party.

The FIR stated that the ED officials forced Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, the gold smuggling kingpins to give statements blaming chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as the ultimate beneficiary of the illegal operations executed with the connivance of the UAE Consulate General office at Thiruvananthapuram. Interestingly, the Centre ordered the probe into the smuggling operations as demanded by Vijayan in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Judge V G Arun held that the proper remedy would have been for the police to approach the special court that has taken cognizance of the ED’s final report with the complaint that the ED officials were fabricating  evidence.

The FIR filed by the Kerala Police against ED was termed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as an attempt to delay and subvert the probe into gold smuggling and hawala transactions masterminded from the Chief Minister’s Office.

Last week also saw Lok Ayukta of Kerala pronouncing that K T Jaleel, minister of higher education who was also the chief of the outlawed SIMI has committed impropriety in appointing his close relation as the general manager of the State Government owned financial institution set up to offer help to people belonging to the Muslim community.

Though the CPI(M) leaders declared unanimously that Jaleel need not resign based on Lak Ayukta verdict  the party leaders dropped the minister like a hot potato when it was disclosed further that Abeed, the relation was appointed based on the orders of Vijayan. Jaleel resigned as minister within hours and left for his home town.

The Kerala Government has already suffered loss of face when its opposition to a demand for CBI probe into the butchering of two Congress activists at Kasaragod and rape and murder of two teenaged sisters at Walayar where overruled by the High Court and asked the CBI to conduct the investigation. The Pinarayi Vijayan administration had spent crores of rupees to hire leading advocates of the Supreme Court to fight the cases.

The murder of Muslim League leader Manzoor in Kannur district on April 6  too has embarrassed the party. Rathish, one of the prime accused, a CPI(M) activist, was found dead under mysterious conditions after three days and the police announced  on Saturday that it was a case of murder. Rathish was murdered by the other accused  in the case to silence him from disclosing sensitive materials.

Hands  of a 23-year-old youth at Kathirur in Kannur was blown off on April 14 as he was assembling a ‘country bomb’ to be used in a murder planned by party leaders. The victim, a CPI(M) activist, was a specialist in assembling lethal and crude bombs.  

On Saturday, G Sudhakaran, minister for public works, came out with allegations that some “political criminals” were scheming  to finish him off. Though he did not name any leaders, it was clear that Sudhakaran was targeting his rivals in the party. Sudhakaran, a leading poet in Kerala, is being seen as an honest politician. But he was denied  party ticket in the April 6 election which according to his close aides was the handiwork of chief minister Vijayan and his new Man Friday, A Vijayaraghavan.

The CPI(M) is undergoing a harrowing time as none other than chief minister is seen with a smiling case.