In a severe setback to Kerala’s Congress-led ruling UDF during the run-up to the May Assembly polls, Excise and Fisheries Minister K Babu of the Congress resigned on Saturday after a Vigilance court ordered registration of an FIR against him over the charge of taking bribe from the State’s bar owners. Babu has been charged with accepting bribes from bar owners to the tune of Rs10 crore.
Babu, a confidant of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, is the second minister to quit the Congress-led UDF Government over the bar bribery scam in less than three months. Kerala Congress (M) chairman KM Mani, facing the charge of taking Rs 1-crore bribe from bar owners, had resigned on November 10 following adverse remarks from the High Court in the case.
Babu, who confirmed handing over his resignation to the Chief Minister, said he was not acting under pressure but was quitting on moral grounds. Though Chandy said a decision on resignation would be taken after discussions with his colleagues, the State Congress leadership had already given Babu the permission to resign, according to sources.
“At this moment, I am not an accused in any case. There is no FIR pending against me as of now. Till this moment I haven’t seen a copy of the court’s judgement. But I will not hide behind technicalities though I must say that I am taking this step not under pressure but on moral grounds,” Babu told newsmen at Kochi on Saturday afternoon.
The order of the Special Vigilance Court, Thrissur came on a public interest litigation filed by rights activist Geroge Vattukulam seeking action over the charge leveled by whistleblower Biju Ramesh, a bar owner, that he himself had given Rs 50-lakh bribe to Babu. The court has also ordered initiation of a case against Ramesh, who had admitted bribing a minister.
As a parting shot, Babu alleged that he was the victim of a conspiracy hatched by the CPI(M) and Biju Ramesh to pull down the Chandy Government, which had implemented a liquor policy by which all bars in the State were closed on March 31 last. However, both the CPI(M) and Ramesh rejected the charge saying such gimmicks would not save Babu or the Government.
According to Ramesh, Babu as Excise minister had taken Rs10 crore as bribe from the Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association for not raising bar licence fees from Rs23 lakh to Rs 30 lakh and for fixing it at Rs25 lakh in 2013. Ramesh had said that he himself had handed over Rs50 lakh of this amount directly to Babu at his office in the State Secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram.
Mani, then the senior-most member of the Chandy Cabinet, had resigned on November 10 last after pressure mounted on him from various corners following the Kerala High Court’s observation that it was up to him to decide whether he should resign while facing the serious bribery charge but Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.
That two of its ministers have been forced to resign in the name of bribery has put the ruling UDF in a difficult situation during the run-up to the crucial Assembly polls. The development has already given a sharp weapon to the CPI(M)-led lDF and the BJP to campaign against the Congress and the UDF.
The resignation of Babu, perhaps Chandy’s staunchest loyalist in the Congress, is a big setback to the party’s ‘A’-group the Chief Minister is heading. The development may embolden the ‘I’ group led by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, which has already started a campaign holding the Chandy-led group responsible for the setbacks of the Congress and the UDF.
Earlier in the day, the Vigilance court in Thrissur blasted the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau for allegedly being insincere and dishonest in conducting a court-ordered quick verification (QV) of the charges against Babu. The court asked the Vigilance to complete the QV in a month and submit a progress report by February 22.
Stating that the probe would now be under its watch, the court criticized the Vigilance for not assessing the assets of Babu and not questioning him and Biju Ramesh. Criticizing the alleged tendency of the Vigilance to insist that complainants should produce evidences, the court said it was the responsibility of the agency to search for evidences.