Legal tangle: V S Achuthanandan slams govt

THIRUVANANTHPAURAM: In a major embarrassment to the LDF Government, veteran CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday said that the stand taken by the standing counsel on the ice-cream parlour case in Supreme Court was unfortunate. He was responding to questions from media persons on the government's stand in Supreme Court.

Mr Achuthanandan expressed his displeasure over the Government standing counsel's view in the Supreme Court that his stand in the case was politically motivated. "I approached the Supreme Court to seek justice for the poor girls," he said while refuting the charge that his stand was prompted by political intentions.

In the hearing before the Bench of Chief Justice of India T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud the state government represented by senior advocate K.K. Venugopal objected to Mr Achuthanandan's plea and said the case had already seen five rounds of litigation since 1997.  Mr Venugopal submitted that a closure report had been filed in the magistrate curt which was being looked into by that court.

Those close to Mr Achuthanandan say that the veteran leader had approached the Supreme Court as the SIT had failed to unearth the source of money spent to alter statements of victims and witnesses in the ice cream parlour case. His main contention was also about the subversion of the judicial process.