Kerala bar scam: Excise minister resigns as court orders case

Kerala’s excise minister K Babu on Saturday handed over his resignation letter to chief miniser Oomen Chandy, after a court directed vigilance and anti-corruption bureau to register case against him over alleged corruption charges in the bar bribery case.

Vigilance department replied that it was done earlier and the report had been submitted at the Lokayukta court and the one-month time has been asked for to collect the reports.

Reacting to the court’s judgement, Babu said, “I have informed the Chief Minister of my readiness to quit the office”.

“All this while, I did not reveal what transpired that led to this situation in the court today”. He said that even when there is no prima facie evidence against him, a PIL was filed in the court based on a CD of an interview with the whistle blower Biju Ramesh in a TV channel. The court also exclaimed that since offering bribe is also considered a crime, a case should be registered against bar owner Ramesh too.

Babu also claimed he was a “victim” of conspiracy by bar owners, who had incurred heavy loss and “who also got support of CPI(M)”.

Biju Ramesh had also stated publicly that the bar owners had paid Rs. 50 lakhs as advance to the Minister on October 31 past year.

CPI-M state secretary Balakrishnan denied any conspiracy.

It was on his allegations that the Vigilance had filed a case against Mani. The Excise Minister alleged that CPI (M) had planned this accusation with the help of bar owners against him. I had then said I will not latch on to technical grounds, instead I will take a moral call. In an apparent reference to the liquor policy of the UDF government to close down more than 700 bar hotels as part of its prohibition plan, he described himself as a “martyr” for implementing a government scheme for the welfare of the society.