Life Mission Chief Executive Officer (CEO) U.V. Jose on Wednesday approached the Kerala High Court challenging the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the CBI in a court here in connection with the alleged irregularities in the Life Mission Housing Project in Thrissur.
In his petition, Mr. Jose said the CBI had registered the FIR with mala fide intention and the agency was guided by political and extraneous considerations. The FIR had alleged violation of Section 3 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. In fact, the Life Mission had not accepted any contribution, much less any foreign contributions.
The contractual agreement for the construction of the buildings under the Life Mission was executed between the Consular General of United Arab Emirate and Unitac, a construction company. It was the sponsors which had selected Unitac and Sane Ventures for giving contract for constructing the buildings under the project.
The petition said neither the State government nor the Life Mission had any role in the selection of contractors.
The petition said the companies which had inked agreements with the Consulate General of United Arab Emirates did not come under any category of persons prohibited from receiving foreign contributions under Section 3 of the Act.
The category of persons included candidates for election, correspondent, columnist, cartoonist, editor, owner, printer or publisher of a registered newspaper, judges, government servants or employee of government controlled bodies, member of any legislature, political parties or companies engaged in the production or broadcast of audio news or audio visual news or current affairs programmes through any electronic mode, etc.
Mr. Jose pointed out that even if it was assumed that they had received any contribution or any amount from Red Crescent, a U.S.-based organisation, no offence could be attributed to them. Besides, any amount received by way of fee or cost in lieu of goods or services rendered in ordinary course would not come under the foreign contributions as per explanation 3 to Section 2(h) of the Act.
The CBI now proposed to conduct a roving inquiry against the government officials to find out whether they had committed any offence. In fact, the investigation could only be conducted into the offence already committed as per the Act. Besides, the provisions of the Act did not empower the Centre to specify any agency to conduct an inquiry into the violations of the Act in any State to the exclusion of the State agency, the petitioner said.
The petition sought to quash the FIR registered by the CBI. The FIR was registered on a complaint filed by Anil Akkara, MLA, alleging that the two construction companies which had undertaken constructions for the buildings under the Life Mission at Wadakkanchery had accepted foreign contributions in violation of the provisions of the Act.