Vigilance report to be taken up by court today
K. M. Mani
Thiruvananthapuram: The final report of the bar bribery case submitted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau giving a clean chit to Finance Minister K. M. Mani revealed that the bar owners were in possession of Rs 15 lakh while visiting Mr Mani’s Pala residence, but there was no evidence that it was handed over to the minister.
Insufficient evidence for Mr Mani demanding bribe or extending any undue favours is the ground on which the VACB requested the court to drop further action in the case. The court is likely to consider the report submitted by the special investigation unit-ISP R. Sukesan on Thursday.
According to legal sources, the court would have the options of accepting the Vigilance report or ordering a further probe. Notices may be sent to Opposition Leader V.S. Achuthanandan who is a de-facto complainant of the case.
According to the Vigilance report, on March 22, 2014 bar owners Saju Dominic and Joseph Mathew collected Rs. 15 lakh and the amount was handed over to the office-bearers of Kerala Bar Hotel Association on the premises of Mr Mani’s Pala residence. But there was no evidence to prove that the accused demanded the amount or that it was handed over. The amount of Rs. 15 lakh was entered in the association’s account on April 11.
The report also said that KBHA office-bearers Rajkumar, M.D. Dhanesh, Krishnadas and Jayakrishnan (Animon) admitted that they met Mr Mani at his residence in Pala on March 31, 2014, but denied the allegation that they handed over Rs. 50 lakh to him. However, it was also revealed that bar owner Animon collected Rs. 10 lakh as per Dhanesh’s instruction as legal fund and handed over the amount to KBHA office-bearers on the same day. But there was no evidence of handing over the amount to Mr Mani.
The report also said that the version of Biju Ramesh’s driver Ambili that Rs. 35 lakh was handed over to one Sreevalsan on the way to Mr Mani’s official residence on Cliff House compound on April 2, 2014 and that he later took it back from him and handed it over to Rajkumar also lacked veracity.
The polygraph test on Ambili could not also support the credibility of that statement, the report said. The VACB report further stated that the government decision on the bars was against the interest of the bar owners. The CD containing the recordings of the conversations submitted by Biju Ramesh at the court was also found to be manipulated in the forensic test.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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