Thiruvananthapuram: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) received a heavy blow on Tuesday when a vigilance court here rejected a probe report absolving former finance minister K M Mani in a bribery case.
This was the third report submitted by the bureau that was trashed by the court. Remarkably, the VACB never before had given three successive reprieves to any accused in corruption cases.
Certainly, the whole process has led to a severe diminishing of credibility for the VACB as the agency had maintained that there was no circumstantial or scientific evidence against the accused.
The bar bribery scandal surfaced during the tenure of the previous UDF government when Jacob Thomas was the Additional Director of Vigilance. Mani was forced to resign from his post in 2015 due to the allegations.
The case against Mani was registered in December 2014 on a complaint filed by bar owner and Kerala Bar Hotel Association (KBHA) working president Biju Ramesh who alleged that the minister had demanded a bribe of Rs 10 crore for the renewal of bar licences.
After preliminary investigation, R Sukesan, SP (vigilance), the officer in charge of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) initially, had claimed that there was circumstantial evidence to prove the allegation. It set the stage for a shakeup at the top of the VACB, with ADGP Jacob Thomas getting replaced by N Shankar Reddy by the UDF government. In July 2016, towards the fag end of the UDF regime, Sukesan submitted the second report in the special court claiming that there was no substantial evidence to proceed with the case.
Contradictory reports
When the LDF came into power, Thomas was appointed the VACB director. He sought a report from Sukesan, who, contradicting his original findings, submitted a fresh report in the court claiming that there was concrete evidence against the accused, but he was forced to give a report in Mani’s favour due to political pressure. Based on that report, the court ordered a further probe into the case.
Meanwhile, Thomas was removed from the director post and state police chief Loknath Behera was given the additional charge of the VACB. Subsequently, the CPM made attempts to forge a possible political tie-up with Mani, whose party was sitting as an independent block in the assembly.
Under Behera, the VACB did not attempt to collect any fresh evidence in the case and submitted its third report in the special court claiming that there was no tangible evidence to proceed with the case.
In the meantime, Mani returned to the UDF.
Predicament of watchdog
The VACB, which had been acting at the government’s behest, will now be forced to admit that there was no truth in its three previous reports. The agency also faces the uphill task of collecting fresh evidence in the case to prosecute Mani. Moreover, if the VACB proves that there was truth to the allegations, its former directors and members of the SIT teams could face inquiry for allegedly sabotaging the case.
The investigation was mired in row after Sukesan apparently favoured Mani citing lack of evidence in his initial findings, but did a U-turn following the regime change and filed a petition seeking further probe. Sukesan, against whom the Crime Branch filed a conspiracy case, was later given a clean chit and was conferred with IPS by the LDF government against the vacancies of 2015 after he retired in May.
Govt to seek legal opinion
The state government plans to seek legal opinion before initiating prosecution proceedings against Mani. Going by the immediate responses of top leaders of the CPM and the CPI, the government is likely to give the nod to reopen and reinvestigate the case. According to them, the government or the Left front is not obliged to protect Mani any longer. The court has directed the government to take a final decision on the matter on on before December 10.
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