The Special Vigilance Court in Thrissur, Kerala, on Wednesday directed the State Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau to carry out a quick verification of the allegation that Congress’s Excise Minister K Babu had taken bribe from the State’s bar owners.
Quick verification should be also held against bar owner and whistleblower in the bar bribery scam, Biju Ramesh, who claimed that he had personally handed over `50 lakh as bribe to Minister Babu at his office in the State Secretariat in Thiruvananth-apuram. The court also asked the Vigilance to file the quick verification report before January 23.
Kerala Congress (M) chairman KM Mani had on November 10 resigned as Finance and law Minister following an adverse observation from the High Court over the case pertaining to Biju’s charge that he had taken `1 crore as bribe from bar owners. The Vigilance had registered a formal case against Mani after carrying out a 42-day quick verification.
The order of the Vigilance court came on a petition filed by public interest activist George Vattakulam, chairman of the Thrissur-based Malayala Vedi, seeking orders for initiation of a case by listing Babu and Biju as first and second accused respectively. It is now up to the VACB Director to take a decision about which official should carry out the quick verification.
According to Biju, Babu, a close confidant and staunch loyalist of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, had taken `10 crore as bribe from bar owners and he himself had handed over `50 lakh to the Minister. George had filed the petition on the basis of the ‘disclosures’ made by Biju in his interviews to television channels.
As the court directed the Vigilance to hold quick verification against Babu and Biju, the Government’s Additional legal Advisor opposed this saying there was no need of a fresh probe as a preliminary probe into the charge against the Minister had already been completed. The court rejected the argument saying there was no problem in holding another inquiry.
George had submitted copies of the video-clippings of TV programmes in which Biju was seen leveling the allegation against Babu. “Kerala has to know the truth about the allegation. The man who made the charge is still firm in what he said. If it is false, why no action is being taken against himIJ” George asked.