The State government on Wednesday told a special court here that there was no evidence to prosecute former Finance Minister K.M. Mani in the bar bribery case.
Notably, Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar of the CPI has recused himself as complainant in the case, citing conflict of interest, given his Cabinet rank. Instead, CPI leader V.K. Raju would pursue the party’s stance in court.
Appearing for the State, C.C. Augustine, legal adviser, Vigilance, told Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge D. Ajith Kumar that a third successive inquiry by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), under two different governments and three separate directors, had found no evidence to indict Mr. Mani for corruption.
Further investigation had not yielded any proof to suggest that Mr. Mani had demanded and accepted bribe from the Kerala Bar Hotel Association (KBHA) to lobby for the restoration of invalidated two-star bar licences in 2014.
Tampered with
The Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Gujarat had testified that the so-called “incriminating audio recordings of KBHA office- bearers” were tampered with and, hence, had no evidentiary value. The KBHA account book showed that bar owners had collected a certain amount of money as “legal fund.” There was no entry stating that it was for the bribe.
A forensic analysis of the troves of mobile phone location data of KBHA office-bearers and Mr. Mani did not prove that they were in the same spot at any point of time, Mr. Augustine said.
Administrative Reforms Commission chairperson V.S. Achuthanandan sought more time to file his objection petition.
However, S. Vinod Kumar, counsel for V. Muraleedharan, MP, of the BJP sought to punch holes in the final report absolving Mr. Mani of all guilt in the case. He said the agency’s further investigation was a farce. It only undermined evidence on record. Through clever jugglery of cellphone records, the agency has attempted to negate proof of contact between the accused and bribe givers.
The court will hear the case again on July 23.
