Mani bar bribe scam: Vigilance sticks to earlier position

Thiruvananthapuram: Vigilance is firm in its report it submitted in the court giving a clean chit to K M Mani in the bar bribery case.

Vigilance lawyer informed this to the Thiruvananthapuram special vigilance court during the trial. The arguments regarding a plea filed by advocate Noble Mathew demanding a rejection of the report were heard.

The lawyer asked how the Vigilance acquitted Mani despite having clear evidence. In a response, the Vigilance replied that they submitted the report after diligent investigation.

When the case was heard on Tuesday, LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan appeared in the court with the petition seeking to implead himself in the petition since convener Vaikom Vishwan was the original petitioner and that at present Vijayaraghavan served in the post of convener.

However, the counsel for the Vigilance informed the court that it was not apprised of the change in the person for the convener post and therefore the demand could not be approved.

Following this, the hearing for the case including the convener's petition was postponed to Monday.

The allegation by bar owner Biju Ramesh was that Mani demanded a bribe of Rs 5 crore to reopen the 48 bars that were closed down during the tenure of UDF government .