The Kerala High Court has allowed the petitions filed by INTUC State president and former Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC) chairperson R. Chandrasekharan and former managing director K.A. Ratheesh challenging a court order directing the State to reconsider sanction for their prosecution in connection with the cashew import scam allegations.

The Division Bench of Justice K. Natarajan and Justice Johnson John allowed the petitions by Mr. Ratheesh and Mr. Chandrasekhar, finding merit in their contention that the court had set aside the State’s refusal of sanction and directed reconsideration without giving the petitioners an opportunity to be heard.

A Single Bench of the court, while considering a contempt of court petition by Kadakampally Manoj of Kollam, had ordered the State to reconsider the sanction to prosecute the two former officials of KSCDC. The sanction had been refused thrice before being granted to the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 6.

The Division Bench noted that separate challenges had been made to each order directing the State to reconsider sanction in accordance with the observations made by the court in a previous order. After the grant of sanction, the CBI had informed the court that offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, had been added to the chargesheet against the accused, in addition to charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.

The CBI had sought sanction to prosecute the public officials in the investigation into the alleged misappropriation in the import of raw cashew by the Corporation between 2006 and 2015.