New Delhi: The Kerala government has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court order quashing the FIR against former Director General of Police Dr Jacob Thomas in connection with a purchase when he served as the Director of Ports Department.

The High Court had passed the verdict last November while allowing a petition by Thomas challenging the FIR registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB).

The allegation against the retired IPS officer was that while he was the Director of Ports from September 16, 2009, to March 17, 2014, he had proposed a tender for the purchase of a Cutter Suction Dredger without the approval of the technical committee.

The FIR alleged that he accepted the bid of M/s IHC Merwede, Holland, in 2012, without obtaining a revised administrative sanction from the government.

The court observed that the allegations in the FIR did not reveal commission of an offence by the petitioner under Section 13(1)(d)(ii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court observed that a letter dated April 30, 2019, by the then Director of Ports (not the petitioner) showed that the technical committee was constituted and in the meeting held on August 10, 2011, the committee had approved the specifications of the dredger to be procured and also put the estimated cost at Rs 8 crore.

The court observed that the petitioner, either personally or in his official capacity as the Director of Ports, had not awarded the contract to M/s. IHC Merwede. The decision to accept the tender of that company was made by the Department Purchase Committee, which included three representatives of the state government. When culpability was attributed on the basis of a collective decision, criminal proceedings could not be initiated against only one of them.