Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to shield finance minister K.M. Mani from a Vigilance case, the Vigilance legal wing is likely to treat any funds received by Mr Mani from bar owners as ‘legal remuneration’ under the Prevention of Corruption Act, besides citing that the government did not extend any undue favours to bar owners.
According to Vigilance sources, the legal wing is likely to hold on to the definition of ‘legal remuneration’ in section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act to justify the suspected collection of Rs 1 crore by Mr Mani from bar owners. Mr Mani being chairman of Kerala Congress (M) could accept funds on behalf of the party.
Moreover, Kerala Bar Hotel Owners’ Association working president Biju Ramesh, the key witness in the case, had also stated that the funds were given as ‘donation.’
Hence, even if it is assumed that Mr Mani accepted the fund, it could not be considered as corruption under the PC Act.
Another contention to be made by the Vigilance legal wing to shield Mr Mani would be to point out that the government did not extend any undue favours to the bar hotels.
"Even if it is alleged that Mani accepted funds offering illegal favours, no favours have been extended to the bar owners by the government so far.
Hence, it would be difficult to prove that any fund collected by Mani was bribe," sources point out.
Even as Mr. Mani told the Vigilance officials that he did not accept any funds, a statement of Biju Ramesh's driver that he had dropped the association leaders at Mr Mani's official residence as well as the mobile phone tower location of the association office-bearers are pieces of evidence against Mr. Mani.
Hence, the Vigilance legal wing is scratching heads to explore options to protect Mr. Mani even if the court refused to take into account the contention that he did not accept any fund.
Meanwhile, a section of Vigilance officials said that there was enough scope for registering an FIR and conducting a detailed probe, especially since some of the key witnesses were not cooperating with the probe. The VACB will have to file a final report of the quick verification this week.
