Director General of Police, State Crime Records Bureau, N. Shankar Reddy has filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the Thiruvanthapuram Vigilance court’s directive to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the allegation that he had torpedoed the investigation into the charges levelled against former Finance Minister K.M. Mani in the bar licence renewal bribery case.
In his petition, Mr. Reddy, who was former Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), pointed out that he had given only supervisory notes to the Investigating Officer in the bribery case R. Sukesan, instructing him to verify certain facts discussed during the course of investigation.
The petitioner had been authorised to issue such supervisory note by the law. Therefore, it could not be treated as an offence.
He further pointed out that the final report in the case was submitted before a Vigilance court, treating the case as further action dropped for want of evidence. There was no evidence to prove the demand of bribe by the accused.
The witnesses who claimed to have handed over the bribe amount did not support the allegation. Even during the further investigation also no evidence was forthcoming to prove this. After analysing the entire evidence gathered by the Investigation Officer during the initial investigation and further investigation, the petitioner had only accorded sanction for submitting the final report before the Vigilance court, fully agreeing with the recommendation of the investigation officer for dropping the case.
He said that if the Vigilance court’s order was not interfered with, it would have a serious ramification over the supervision of investigation of cases by superior police officers in the State and no one would dare to issue written supervisory notes even for further verification of facts or correcting mistakes in the investigation, fearing harassment.
