Thiruvananthapuram: In a major setback to KM Mani, the vigilance court on Tuesday rejected a report that exonerated the former finance minister in the bar bribery case.
The vigilance report had said that there was no evidence to prove that Mani had taken bribe. The court on Tuesday also instructed the Vigilance sleuths to take permission from the Kerala government for a re-probe. This was the third report submitted by the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB).
The case relates to the charge by Kerala State Bar Hotel Owners Association that it had paid Rs 1 crore bribe to Mani for getting a favourable decision to reopen closed bars in 2013-14. The bribe charge was raised by the association's working president Biju Ramesh.
Ramesh had in October 2014 alleged that Mani demanded Rs 5 crore from the association and accepted Rs one crore as bribe for reopening 400-odd closed foreign liquor bars.
Mani, who served as the finance minister in the UDF ministry led by Oommen Chandy, had resigned on November 10, 2015, following the Kerala High Court's observations in the case.
Mani's Kerala Congress (M) had walked out of the Congress-led UDF in August 2016 over the bar bribery scam. The KC(M) was back in the UDF in June 2018 after the Congress announced the decision to support its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election.
'UDF to fight the case'
Reacting to the court order, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the UDF would jointly face the new probe.
PK Kunhalikutty, national general secretary of the IUML, another constituent of the UDF, too said the opposition front would fight the case legally and politically
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