No evidence of bribe against Mani: State Vigilance tells court again
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Thiruvananthapuram: The State Vigilance has repeated that there is no evidence against KM Mani for accepting bribe in the bar bribery case. The agency's legal advisor, in a hearing on a plea said that there is no circumstantial evidence or witness statements in the case.
The plea was to dismiss the report which absolved the Kerala Congress leader of the charge. He also submitted that the investigation team was not convinced about the allegation of John Kallat who alleged that Saju Dominic gave 15 lakh rupees to KM Mani at his residence in Kottayam.
The court asked Noble Mathew, the petitioner, to produce any precedents by which a reinvestigation could be ordered based only on the circumstantial evidence.
Of the 11 petitioners, VS Sunil Kumar had quit the case citing that a minister cannot engage in a case where the government is a respondent, and the conflict of interest involed. VS Achuthanandan, the chief petitioner did not file a stop petition. His advocate asked for two weeks time to file the petition. Hence, the court posted the case for hearing on 27th of this month. Sarah Joseph, who is among the petitioners, did not appear before the court.
The petitioners have alleged that KM Mani accepted a bribe of Rs. 1 crore. Biju Ramesh alleged that Mani demanded Rs. 5 crore from him to open the 48 closed bars.