The Kerala Vigilance has dropped its plan to question Finance Minister KM Mani once again in the case pertaining to the charge that he had taken Rs1 crore as bribe from bar owners after he mounted pressure on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The Vigilance has also given up its move to question Mani’s wife Kuttiyamma and son Jose K Mani MP in connection with the case.
The agency is said to have received instructions in this regard from the State Home Department. The agency may now have to rush through its investigation against Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress M, third-biggest constituent of Kerala’s ruling Congress-led UDF, and submit the final report within a month.
According to sources, Chief Minister Chandy was left with no option but to ask the Home Department to instruct the Vigilance to withdraw from its move for questioning Mani and his kin after the Finance Minister registered his protest harshly, complaining that some people in the Government were using the agency to humiliate him and his family.
Mani is learnt to have complained to the Chief Minister that the Vigilance, which had kept him on the needlepoint of suspicion in front of the people through its probe for the past seven months, was now preparing to humiliate him and his family further with its plan to enter his house in order to question his wife and son.
Chandy cannot afford to antagonize Mani as the support of his Kerala Congress (M), which has nine MlAs, is vital for the continued existence of the UDF Government, surviving on the wafer thin majority of just three members in the 140-seat State Assembly. The Chandy Government has got one more year to complete its tenure.
The decision of the Vigilance, which had questioned Mani for an hour at Kovalam near Thiruvananthapuram on the night of May 8, was to quiz him once again because of the contradictions it had found in the statements he had given on that day and in a previous questioning session during the 42-day quick verification of the charge against him.
The case against Mani started after Biju Ramesh, working president of the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association, accused him on October 31 last of demanding Rs5 crore as bribe from bar owners and taking Rs 1 crore of it for helping them to get licences renewed for their closed bars. The Vigilance registered an FIR against Mani on the basis of the findings in the quick verification.
A section in the Vigilance, which is unhappy about the Government’s habit of interfering in the probe affairs, is concerned that its entire case against the Finance Minister could get weakened when it reaches the court if it cannot record the detailed statements of Mani, wife Kuttiyamma and son Jose, say sources.
Kuttiyamma is a witness in the bar bribery case as a bar owner had told the Vigilance that he had seen Mani handing over to her the money given as bribe to him at his residence in Pala, Kottayam. Mani’s son is facing the charge of trying to influence witnesses. In this situation, questioning them was vital for the Vigilance to strengthen its case, sources said.
At the same time, Ambili, driver of Biju Ramesh, on Monday told the Special Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram that he was ready to undergo lie detection test. Ambili had told the Vigilance that he had seen Mani taking bribe money from the bar owners’ association office-bearers at his official residence on April 2, 2014.
“I have agreed to the Vigilance’s demand for the polygraph procedure. I have no fears. I have spoken only the truth,” Ambili, who claims to have taken association office-bearers to Mani’s residence in Biju Ramesh’s car, said. The Vigilance has already confirmed that Biju’s car had arrived at Mani’s residence on the particular date.