Former Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) director N. Sankar Reddy’s instructions in the bar licence renewal bribery case was to establish that the evidence already available on record was untenable, according to a statement of Investigating Officer (IO) R. Sukeshan.
Mr. Sukeshan’s contentious and potentially explosive “divulgence” fills nine pages of the quick verification report filed by the agency in its special court on Friday. He alleged that Mr. Reddy had prepared a report suggesting that further action in the case be dropped. He directed Mr. Sukeshan to submit a final report in the court in accordance with his findings. Mr. Sukeshan stated that Mr. Reddy’s findings were congruent to aspects in the “scrutiny note” the director had prepared earlier to steer the further inquiry ordered by the court.
Mr. Reddy allegedly ordered Mr. Sukeshan to alter the case diary (CD) (the manual in which the IO records the day-to-day matters of the investigation in detail) to match findings in the final report filed in court. Mr. Sukeshan said he had pleaded inability to alter the entries in the CD but agreed to file the final report as ordered by Mr. Reddy.
He stated that Mr. Reddy openly doubted his integrity, got angry with him and his team and finally recommended a Crime Branch inquiry against him on the suspicion of having colluded with Biju Ramesh, the complainant in the case.
