THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister K.M. Mani may soon wriggle out of the bar scam with Vigilance legal advisor C.C. Augustine opining that there was little scope to prosecute him in the present context as the bar owners had denied giving him bribe.
In the legal opinion on the factual report on the case handed over to Vigilance director Vinson M. Paul, Mr Augustine is learnt to have suggested further probe to get clarification on certain aspects so that the case could be prosecuted.
Mr Vinson M. Paul will take a final decision after the legal opinion is vetted by ADGP (vigilance) Shaik Darvesh Saheb. The Vigilance director could also seek further opinion of additional director of prosecution (Vigilance) G. Saseendran or even any other legal experts. Meanwhile, there were also unconfirmed reports that the legal advisor, who was appointed by the previous Left government, was under pressure from the CPM to give an adverse report on Mr Mani, especially in view of the Aruvikkara bypoll.
It may be recalled that Mr Augustine had initially recommended registration of case against Mr Mani, even when the additional director of prosecution had suggested that there was no scope for registering a case.
According to sources, the Vigilance inquiry team had not even conducted any raids on the premises of Mr Mani to trace any evidence of the alleged bribe received by him. This itself indicated that the investigators could not unearth any evidence on the allegation.
