Kerala’s nonagenarian Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan on Sunday announced that he would challenge in the court the decision of the State’s Vigilance Director that there was no need to file a chargesheet against Finance and law Minister KM Mani in the bar bribery case pertaining to the charge that he had taken Rs 1 crore as bribe from bar owners.
The 92-year-old Marxist unleashed a scathing attack against Vigilance Director Vinson M Paul, seen so far as an honest and efficient official, saying, “He has sacrificed the powers invested in him by surrendering himself to political pressures. This is a blemish on the investigative agencies not only of the State but also of the whole country,” he said.
The Vigilance Director had taken the decision against filing a chargesheet against Mani, the senior-most member of the Congress-led UDF Cabinet, just minutes after the polling for the Assembly by-election in Aruvikkara was completed on Saturday. The timing of the decision itself was ground for critics’ suspicions about alleged political pressures on Vinson Paul.
“The Vigilance Director’s decision is unjust and mysterious… I will initiate legal proceedings after the Vigilance report is presented in the court,” Achuthanandan said in Thiruvananthapuram. Whistleblower Biju Ramesh, a bar owner who charged Mani with taking the bribe, has already said that he would approach the High Court against the Vigilance chief’s decision.
Vinson Paul had on Saturday instructed Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) R Sukesan, who headed the team which
investigated the bar bribery scam, to inform the court about the decision that there was no need of a chargesheet against Mani on the basis of a legal advice that no case could be framed against the Minister because of lack of sufficient evidences.
The Vigilance chief took this decision despite the factual report of his own investigating officer, Sukesan, that there were enough evidences to chargesheet Mani. Additional DGP (Vigilance) Shaik Darvesh Saheb had earlier rejected Sukesan’s factual report on the basis of the opinion of the agency’s legal advisor, CC Augustine.
The agency had started its probe against Mani, who this year celebrated his 50th anniversary as a legislator, on December 10 by registering an FIR against him after it found through a “quick verification” that there was substance in the charge of bribery. Mani is the chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the ruling UDF.
According to Biju Ramesh, working president of the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association, Mani had demanded Rs 5 crore as bribe from the bar owners and had taken Rs 1 crore of it in three installments by promising to help them in getting the licences renewed for their bars closed on March 31, 2014 for lack of required facilities.