THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major development in the bar bribery case, minister for agriculture VS Sunilkumar informed the inquiry commissioner and special judge (vigilance) on Wednesday that he wanted to withdraw his petition against former
finance minister KM Mani.
His counsel informed the special judge that Sunilkumar did not want to be a part of this case as he was a member of the state cabinet. He had filed the petition against Mani as citizen before he became a minister. Sunilkumar had arraigned himself as a party in the case when vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB) gave a clean chit to Mani for the first time during the rule of the previous UDF government.
At present, the court is hearing the objections filed by petitioners on the final report filed by VACB which gave Mani a clean chit. On June 6, BJP leader V Muraleedharan and another petitioner Noble Mathew had filed their objections. There are 10 petitioners in the case, including former chief minister VS Achuthanandan and bar owner Biju Ramesh. The other petitioners are yet to file their objections.
On Wednesday, the counsel of Achuthanandan sought more time from the court to file his objection. The court heard the arguments put forth by Muraleedharan’s counsel, the legal adviser of vigilance. The court will consider the case on July 23 when the arguments of all other petitioners will be heard. They were directed to file their objections on the vigilance report on time.
The further investigation report was filed in March this year. This was the second further investigation report filed in this case. It was ordered in 2016 as soon as the LDF government assumed office. The report filed by vigilance SP KE Baiju stated that the probe could not unearth any fresh evidence which suggested that Mani had demanded or accepted bribe from bar owners.
