Kochi, Oct 15 The Kerala High Court on Thursday suspended the sentence of former DGP Tomin J Thachankary who was convicted in a disproportionate assets case.
Justice A Badharudeen granted the relief to the former officer who was sentenced by a vigilance court to four years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 30.84 lakh.
The order came on Thachankary's appeal in which he has said that the FIR registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau initially covered assets allegedly amassed between January 1, 2003, and March 1, 2005, and was subsequently extended to July 4, 2007.
Searches were conducted at various premises on July 4, 2007, and documents were seized, the petition said.
After the investigation, a final report was filed, and the case was subsequently transferred between Vigilance courts before being taken up by the Vigilance Court in Kottayam in 2020.
The petition has said the state government subsequently ordered a further investigation after Thachankary complained that several items of income belonging to him had not been considered and that there were errors in the calculations made by the investigating officer.
The High Court had later quashed the government's order for further investigation, holding that the government could not order such a probe.
However, it permitted the investigating agency to use evidence collected during the further investigation, the appeal has said.
Thachankary has alleged in his petition that none of those documents were produced before the trial court despite his application under Rule 19(4) of the Kerala Criminal Rules of Practice.
He has said he had denied the incriminating circumstances when questioned under Section 313 of the CrPC during the trial and had submitted a further statement explaining what he claimed were errors in the calculations and the circumstances in which he was falsely implicated.
Thachankary has contended in the appeal that the conviction is unsustainable and illegal, alleging gross misappreciation of the evidence and reliance on erroneous calculations made by the investigating officers.
