The Kerala High Court on Tuesday slammed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) for taking contradictory stance on the bar bribery case against former Finance Minister and Kerala Congress(M) leader K.M. Mani.
The court made the observation when a petition filed by Mr. Mani challenging the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court order giving the VACB permission to conduct a further probe in the case came up for hearing. The Vigilance court had granted permission for a further probe on a petition filed by Superintendent of Police R. Sukesan, who had earlier probed the case.
Mr. Sukesan had sought a further investigation on the ground that former Vigilance Director N. Sankar Reddy had intervened in the earlier probe with a view to giving Mr. Mani a clean chit. Mr. Sueksan had earlier filed a final report in the case saying that no offence had been made out.
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Different stance
The court while referring to these earlier two reports wondered why the VACB was taking such different stances in the same case.
In a fresh report filed before the court, Mr. Sukesan submitted that the present the investigation was being conducted by an Inspector of the Police. The court pointed out that he had filed the report without any directive. If so, something would have to be doubted about his interest in the proceedings. The court asked the inspector to file a report before the court.
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The former Finance Minister had alleged in his petition that the plea for a further investigation had been allowed without looking into whether any fresh materials against the petitioner had emerged or not. In fact, the petition seeking further investigation was filed with the mala fide intention to harass the petitioner by “frivolous and vexatious prosecutions.”
He contended that there could not be “repeated further investigation” into an offence for umpteen times.