Thiruvananthapuram: Bar owner Biju Ramesh has come out with a new revelation, saying that he had paid a bribe of Rs. 1 crore to Excise Minister K. Babu for the renewal of the bar licences.
“I paid a bribe of Rs. 1 crore to Minister Babu in two installments,” said Biju hours after the minister said he was not bothered over the allegation against him.
K. Babu, however, rubbished Biju Ramesh’s allegations against him, saying that it was concocted to tarnish his image.
“Biju Ramesh is trying to tarnish the image of those persons who do good jobs,” he said.
“It was on October 31, 2014 Biju Ramesh had first raised his charges against Mani. Biju didn’t raise any allegation against me at that time. He didn’t even say anything in this regard when he gave his statement to the Vigilance. Later, he came out with the allegation that he had paid me a bribe of Rs. 50 lakh on March 31, 2015. Following it, a quick verification was conducted and a report on it was submitted. The case was later withdrawn owning lack of evidences,” Babu said.
“After six months, Biju approached me seeking to cancel the defamation case against him. He had also threatened me that he would reveal more about the bar bribery if it was otherwise. But, I told him I would go ahead with the case,” he said.
Babu told reporters this morning that Biju’s messengers had approached him seeking withdrawal of the defamation case in connection with the bar bribery case.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” he said.
Soon after Mani put in his papers on Tuesday, Biju had made it clear that he would carry on with the legal fight against K Babu.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy reacted to the new development, asking why Biju had taken such a long time to reveal an incident that happened a year ago.