Thiruvananthapuram : Another minister in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government has resigned in the bar bribery scam rocking Kerala since the government went for a phased prohibition.
Excise Minister K Babu stepped down on Saturday after a vigilance court at Thrissur ordered the filing of a case against him for allegedly accepting bribes from bar owners. Earlier K M Mani had resigned as finance minister following high court remarks over his continuation in the ministry after registration of a case against him.
Kerala Bar Hotel Owners Association (KBHA) working president Biju Ramesh had accused both ministers of taking huge sums as bribe for facilitating the reopening of bars closed under the phased prohibition policy of the government.
The state government had last year closed down all bars except those in five-star hotels, citing the high liquor consumption in the state. Babu said that the allegation against him was prompted by the initiatives he made to make the state liquor-free.
Though Babu was given a clean chit in a preliminary probe conducted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) into Biju’s allegation that he had received a bribe of Rs 10 crores, a public interest petition filed by an NGO at Thrissur sealed his fate. The vigilance court had last month ordered a quick verification into the allegation on the petition filed by Thrissur Malayalavedi chairman George Vattukulam within a month.
The court directed the VACB to file a first information report and conduct the inquiry when the latter sought one month’s time to complete the quick verification.
Coming down heavily on the VACB for its ineffective handling of the probe, vigilance enquiry commissioner and special judge S S Vasan ordered that the new probe would be a court-monitored enquiry as per the section 156 (3) of the CrPC and as per the order pronounced by the Supreme Court in 2008.
The judge has asked the VACB to submit a progress report on the probe by February 22.
Babu, who was attending the launch of the trial run of Kochi metro train when the news about the verdict came, consulted the chief minister, who was on the dais, and informed his decision to quit.
He submitted the letter of resignation after detailed discussion with the chief minister and other senior leaders at the government guest house few hours later.
