Thiruvananthapuram: The Vigilance Court Wednesday said that Vigilance director Vinson M Paul had given strict instructions to set Finance Minister K.M Mani free of all bribery charges.
Rejecting Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau's claim that its director had only opined that Mani could be given a clean chit in the case, the court said the officer had made his stance clear in a letter submitted with the final report of the probe.
The court also rejected the Vigilance's argument that its director and SP Sukeshan who led the investigation had equal role in the probe. “S.P. R Sukeshan has the sole authority of the investigation,” the court said.
The investigation report submitted by the Kerala vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB) to a special court had given a clean chit to Finance Minister KM Mani in the bar bribery scandal.
The alleged scam surfaced in November last year after Biju Ramesh alleged that Finance Minister K.M Mani had received bribes to reopen the closed bars.