Kerala’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has completed its probe into the infamous bar bribery scandal involving State Finance Minister KM Mani. The agency informed the Special Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday that the final probe report would be submitted soon. In an affidavit submitted to the court, Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) R Sukesan, head of the team which investigated the case, said that the agency’s legal advisor and senior officials would now examine the factual report on the probe. As this process was beyond his control, he could not give an exact date for the submission of the final probe report, he informed the court.
The official told the court about the completion of the investigation when a petition filed by bar owner Biju Ramesh, who had leveled the bribery allegation against Mani, the senior-most member of the Kerala Cabinet, seeking a court-monitored probe into the scam came up for hearing. The court dismissed the plea after the agency informed it of the probe’s completion.
Biju Ramesh, working president of the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association, had on October 31 charged Finance and law Minister Mani with demanding Rs5 crore as bribe from the State’s bar owners and taking Rs1 crore by promising to help them in getting the licences renewed for their bars which had been closed down for lack of required facilities.
The Vigilance team headed by SP Sukesan had started the investigation against Mani on December 10 after the agency found through a “quick verification” that there was prima facie evidence to support Biju Ramesh’s charge against Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the Congress-led ruling UDF.
Sukesan’s affidavit was presented to the court by Vigilance’s legal advisor CC Augustine who was to examine the team’s factual report on the probe into the scam. The factual report will be submitted to the Vigilance Director after examination by the legal advisor. The Director himself may opt for seeking further legal advice on it.
The Vigilance is reportedly under pressure from the Government to delay the submission of the final report till the by-election in Aruvikkara Assembly constituency on June 27 is over. The Government fears that adverse references to Mani in the final probe report could seriously affect the UDF’s prospects in the by-election.
Mani’s party has already warned Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the Congress that its response will be tough if the Vigilance’s probe report describes him as guilty. The support of the eight MlAs of Mani’s party is crucial for the UDF Government which is surviving on a wafer-thin majority of three seats in the 140-member Assembly.
It has already been reported that the Vigilance dept has collected enough evidence to establish that Mani could have taken bribe from the bar owners. The agency had recorded the statements of more than 300 witnesses, most of them bar owners, and had carried out its own field investigations which had yielded evidence supporting Biju Ramesh’s claim.
Biju’s driver Ambili had told the Vigilance dept that it was he who had taken bar owners’ association president D Rajkumar Unni to Mani’s official residence to give him Rs35 lakh, final installment of the Rs1 crore bribe, on April 2, 2014. He also said that he had seen Unni handing over the money to the Minister. A polygraph test on Ambili had justified his statement.