Problems for the scam-beleaguered Congress-led UDF Government of Kerala over the bar bribery issue are set to worsen further with the bar owners in the State deciding to unite against it for the betrayal it had allegedly meted out to them by closing down all the bars by law despite the several crores of rupees they had reportedly paid as bribes to Ministers and others.
On Sunday, Biju Ramesh, working president of the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association, said that the outfit had collected Rs24 crore from its member bar owners, obviously to bribe various Ministers and other leaders in order to rescue their industry from closure and to meet the expenses of the legal cases it was fighting in the court.
Biju Ramesh has been consistent since October 31 in his allegation that Finance Minister KM Mani of the Kerala Congress (M) had taken Rs1 crore as bribe from the bar owners and that they had paid Rs10 crore as bribe to Excise Minister K Babu of the Congress. The State Vigilance is currently looking into both these cases.
A meeting of the executive committee of the bar owners’ association which ended late Saturday night decided to support Biju Ramesh, who had till now been almost alone in the war against the Government over the bar bribery issue. It also decided that there was no need for the bar owners to protect the Government which had destroyed their industry by closing down all bars.
The association’s decision is to divulge details of the amount it had collected from the members in order to pay bribes and meet legal expenses and the names of the Ministers and other leaders who had been paid the bribes. This, if done, will cause a huge embarrassment to the Government which is already reeling under the corruption charges against Ministers.
Biju Ramesh said on Sunday that the bar owners had paid bribes to many leaders as instructed by Minister Babu, who had allegedly taken Rs10 crore from them for lowering the bar licence fee. “I have all the details and figures. The break up for the bribes was given by Babu,” Biju said, adding that even MlAs could have taken money.
So far, Biju Ramesh was the only bar owner who had taken a stiff anti-Government stand on the issue. He had been firm in his allegations against Mani and Babu during the many sessions of the Vigilance’s questioning but other bar owners like association president D Rajkumar Unni had taken a stand that they had no knowledge about the alleged bribery.
However, the association meeting on Saturday decided to bury the differences among the bar owners and to toe the line adopted by Biju Ramesh as Unni and others had reportedly realized that supporting the Government was not going to serve any purpose as it was determined not to allow reopening of bars because of its liquor policy which strived .to bring about Prohibition
How serious Unni and other association office-bearers are will be known when they make their stand clear before a court on Monday on the Vigilance’s request to subject them to polygraph procedure. It is still to be known whether they will really retract from the statements they had given to the Vigilance in which they favoured the Government and the Ministers.
At the same time, former Government Chief Whip PC George, who was the personal troubleshooter of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy till some months ago, said on Sunday that the Chief Minister would have to go to jail if the CBI probed the scandal, indirectly alleging that he was the kingpin of the entire bar bribery scam.
“As things stand now, only Mani, his wife and son and Babu will go to prison (Mani’s wife Kuttiyamma had allegedly known about the payment of bribe to him and his son Jose K Mani was accused of influencing and threatening witnesses). But if the CBI comes into the scene, Chandy also will have to march to the jail,” George said in Kottayam.