HC slaps fine on Thomas Chandy

Kochi: The high court on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on former transport minister Thomas Chandy and his son and two others for wasting the court’s time by filing a petition unnecessarily challenging the criminal case alleging illegal filling of paddy fields for constructing a road to his resort in Alappuzha.

Justice B Sudheendra Kumar imposed the fines on Chandy, his son Toby Chandy, Water World Tourism Company director Biji K John, and Alappuzha harbour engineering division executive engineer Jose Mathew.

The court’s decision was after they sought to withdraw the petition challenging the vigilance case after the court completed the hearing on it and reserved the case for pronouncing judgment. However, the court allowed the resort supervisor Jiji to withdraw the plea without a fine.

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 Thomas Chandy is a director.

The FIR was registered on the basis of a vigilance court’s directive in the case over reclamation of the one-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 the bund road for the resort was in violation of provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act of 2008.