The Kerala High Court on Friday restrained the media, including online portals, from discussing the merit of the sensational bar bribery case against former Minister KM Mani, also chairman of the Kerala Congress (M) party, until the next posting date of the case even as the Congress-led Opposition UDF began efforts to bring Mani’s party back to the coalition which it had left in 2016.
The court passed the order in the context of the leakage of the alleged contents of a probe progress report, which the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) had submitted to it on Wednesday, on the sensational case. It was brought to the notice of the court by the counsel of Mani that publication of the report’s contents amounted to contempt of court.
The court directed, that since the case was pending before it, no discussion by any media – visual, print or online – should be held on the merit of the case. Heated debates had taken place in the media during the past two days over the contents of the report in which the Vigilance had allegedly exonerated Mani in the case by stating that no evidences were available against him.
The High Court also directed the Vigilance not to reveal the contents of its investigation into the scam that had unleashed a political storm in the State three years ago and had impacted the 2016 Assembly election in a big way. The Vigilance informed the court that it had already launched an internal probe into the issue.
The contents of the probe progress report had become subject of discussion in the media despite the fact that the Vigilance had submitted it to the court in a sealed envelope. Observing that leakage of contents of reports submitted in sealed envelopes could not be accepted, the court summoned the senior Government pleader to convey its displeasure.
The court refrained from making further criticisms after it was told that an inquiry had been launched into the matter but it asked the Government to ensure that no such lapses occurred again. It also observed that discussions in the media on such matters could influence progress of the probe as the final report was to be submitted in 45 days.
Media reports allegedly based on the contents of the report the Vigilance had filed in the court had said that the agency wanted the bar bribery case against Mani to be wound up as follow-up investigation had become almost impossible because it was unable to collect scientific or circumstantial evidences against him.
The charge against Mani was that he had taken Rs 1 crore as bribe from the State’s bar owners in 2014 promising to get their licences renewed when he was minister for Finance and law in the then Congress-led UDF government. The scam and the political storm it set off had forced him to resign as minister on November 10, 2015 following an adverse remark from the High Court.
The bar bribery scam erupted on October 31, 2014 with the disclosure by Biju Ramesh, a leading bar owner and then working president of the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association, that Mani had demanded Rs 5 crore as bribe from bar owners and had taken Rs 1 crore of it by promising to help them get the licences renewed for their bars that were closed down due to lack of facilities.
Meanwhile, the UDF intensified efforts to bring the Kerala Congress (M) back to the front which it had quit in August, 2016 severing a three-decade-long association amidst reports that the Vigilance was planning to give a clean chit to Mani in the bar bribery case as part of a determined bid by the CPI(M) to induct his party into the ruling lDF it leads.