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Kerala bar bribery scam returns to haunt K M Mani

Trivandrum - The minister had claimed in his statement to the vigilance that he was not present at Pala that day.

The bar bribery scam that rocked Kerala last year has returned to haunt Finance Minister K M Mani with the documents related to the investigation submitted to the vigilance court here revealing documentary, scientific and oral evidence to support the graft charge against him.
Vigilance officer R Sukesan, who probed the case, has listed a series of evidence to show that the minister had received Rs1.5 million from the representatives of Kerala Bar Hotel Owners Association at his residence at Pala on March 22, 2014, in his factual report now being perused by the court.
The minister had claimed in his statement to the vigilance that he was not present at Pala that day. However, the call detail record (CDR) of his mobile phone showed that he was at Pala on that day. The records further showed that a call from the mobile phone of a member of his personal staff had gone to bar owner Krishnadas, who led the seven-member team of bar owners to Mani's residence.
All the seven members of the team had told the vigilance officer that they had met the minister at his Pala residence that day. Sukesan's factual report surfacing in a section of the media also indicated sufficient evidence regarding Rs1 million he received from the bar owners at his official residence in the state capital on April 2, 2014.
The investigation was conducted on the basis of the allegation made by Biju Ramesh, working president of the bar owners association, that the bar owners had paid a bribe of Rs10 million to the minister for renewing their licenses. Mani, however, denied he had taken any bribe from the bar owners.
In his report, Sukesan produced evidence regarding graft of Rs2.5 million received by the minister. He had recommended prosecution of Mani based on these evidences. But Vigilance Director Vinson M Paul rejected the recommendation based on the legal opinion that the evidence was not strong enough to support a chargesheet against Mani.
Reacting to the media reports regarding the evidence against Mani, Vinson said that the details of the mobile phone communications of the witnesses could not be taken as evidence in a case. It indicates only their presence in a particular locality and cannot establish cash transactions. The vigilance director said that the investigation officer had made the recommendation relying solely on presumptions and inferences that have no legal merit. He said Sukesan had no evidence to prove that Mani had demanded or accepted bribe from the bar owners.
His findings will not stand legal scrutiny, he claimed.
The documents related to the investigation were sought by the vigilance court after the VACB submitted its final report giving a clean chit to the minister. The court will consider the report on August 22.
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