Thomas Chandy seeks to withdraw plea

KOCHI

: Former transport minister Thomas Chandy on Friday sought to withdraw the petitions filed before the high court challenging the criminal cases against the alleged illegal filling of paddy fields for constructing a road to his resort in

Alappuzha

.

During hearing, a counsel representing Chandy sought the court’s permission to file a plea for withdrawing the petitions pending before the high court.

While the counsel’s submission came on Friday, the case was already reserved by the court for pronouncing the judgment after hearing all the parties. The court has allowed the counsel to file a petition seeking permission to withdraw the petitions.

In the case registered by Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, it was alleged that illegal reclamation of paddy land was carried out to construct a bund road leading to

Lake Palace Resort

, in which Chandy is a director.

The FIR was registered on the basis of a vigilance court’s directive in the case over the reclamation of a kilometre-long bund road from Valiyakulam to Zero Jetty.

An FIR was ordered to be registered by the vigilance court on January 4, 2018 after considering a complaint alleging that the reclamation of land was in violation of provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act of 2008.

Questioning the registration of FIR, the resort group had contended that the three metre wide road was strengthened by graveling by the district administration using Members of Parliament Local Area Development fund for the benefit of the public. The road is now vested with the local authority and is a public road, the petition had stated.