Kerala’s four-year-old Congress-led UDF Government seemed to be heading for a major crisis as reports suggested on Monday that the Vigilance was likely to file a ‘chargesheet’ against Finance Minister KM Mani of the Kerala Congress (M) in the infamous bar bribery scam pertaining to the charge that he had taken Rs1 crore as bribe from the State’s bar owners.
According to sources, the Vigilance’s investigation team headed by Superintendent of Police R Sukesan is already in the process of preparing the final probe report and it would be submitted to the agency’s Director before the close of this month. They said that the Vigilance team had arrived at a conclusion that Mani could have taken the bribe.
However, chargesheeting Mani would depend on the political decision the Government of Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is going to take. Observers feel that the possibility of an intervention by the Government is very high as such a development could lead to a situation where the entire Government will have to resign along with Mani.
The Vigilance has reportedly already collected crucial information that made it conclude that there were sufficient circumstantial evidences that could establish the charge against Mani. The bribery case had started on October 31 last with bar owner Biju Ramesh accusing Mani of demanding Rs5 crore as bribe from bar owners and taking Rs1 crore of that.
The Vigilance had the other day received the result of the polygraph procedure on Ambili, Biju Ramesh’s driver, which confirmed as true his claim that it was he who had taken D Rajkumar Unni, president of the Kerala Bar Hotels Association, to Mani’s residence on April 2, 2014 to hand over to him Rs 35 lakh, the third installment towards the Rs1 crore bribe.
Ambili had also told the Vigilance that he had seen Unni handing over the money to the Minister at his official residence in Thiruvananthapuram. The Vigilance had almost a month ago confirmed that Biju’s car had arrived at Mani’s residence on the particular date and mobile phone tower information had confirmed that all the players were at one place at that time.
Biju Ramesh’s own statements to the Vigilance and before a Magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC against Mani also could strengthen the circumstantial evidences, sources said.