Kochi: Former finance minister K.M. Mani has moved the Kerala High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in the alleged poultry farm financial fraud case by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Senior lawyer M.K. Damodaran appeared for Mr Mani and argued that the FIR was registered without examining the records. The essential ingredients to attract the offences are absent in the allegations and in the FIR, the petitioner claimed. The court considered the case on Wednesday and sought the VACB's stand.
The allegation was that Mr Mani while in office hatched a criminal conspiracy with poultry dealers, abused his position and without any authority ordered stay of the revenue recovery proceedings to recover Rs 65 crore from them. It was alleged that he also transferred an officer who was dealing with the appeals of the poultry dealers and that he granted retrospective exemption of taxes to ayurvedic companies from 12.5 percent to 4 percent disregarding objections by the commercial taxes department and the subject committee.
According to Mr Damodaran, Mr Mani in his capacity as a minister had powers to order stay of revenue recovery proceedings concerning his department and in a case where the suggestion of the concerned minister to grant stay on the precondition of remitting 10 percent of the total due amount is forwarded to the minister having authority to grant stay, it cannot be said that there was an abuse of position.
The petitioner contended, “to attract an offence under section 13(1) (d), there should be proof of demand for illegal gratification, without which use of corrupt or illegal means or abuse of position as public servant cannot be established.”
When the prosecution has no case that the public servant concerned had demanded and accepted any illegal gratification, a charge under section 13(1)(d) is to fail. “Abusing his position,” means misuse. In a case where a person acted under the powers vested in him, it cannot be said that there was abuse of position. Mr Mani argued that the tax rebate was given by the Assembly through a statutory amendment and it was not an executive order as projected by the Vigilance. Therefore, the registration of FIR was clothed in illegalities and liable to be quashed, the plea said.
VACB collects statement from George C Kappan
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) on Wednesday took the statement of Mr George C. Kappan, the complainant in the case filed against former finance minister K.M. Mani alleging that he had given tax exemptions to a battery manufacturing unit. Mr Kappan, a Pala native, maintained that Mr Mani had benefited to the tune of crores of rupees through tax exemption. He also demanded that the assets of Mr Mani after 1965 should be investigated.
As per the complaint, Mr Mani granted tax exemption with retrospective effect to a unit producing lead powder which is used in batteries and thereby caused a loss of Rs 1.66 crore to the exchequer.
A preliminary investigation conducted by the VACB officials had verified the loss as a result of the tax exemption given to Super Pigments of Kurichy. The Vigilance has decided to conduct a thorough probe on the basis of this.
The tax for lead powder production unit was raised to 12.5 percent from 4 percent in 2005 after VAT came into effect. Later, it was raised to 13. 5 percent in 2012-13.
However, Super Pigments owner Benny did not remit the revised amount till 2015 and paid only 5 percent tax. In the budget presented in 2103-12, Mr Mani gave the unit an exemption, revising the tax to 5 percent with retrospective effect.
