Bar scam: audio clip embarrasses CPI(M)

The bar bribery scandal, which deeply damaged the ruling Congress-led UDF government, and which was used by the Opposition CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front to its advantage, seems to be biting the LDF back.

The leak of an audio recording of a meeting of the Kerala Bar Hotel Association has come as a weapon for the UDF to buttress its claim that the CPI(M) had been conspiring with bar owners to topple the government. In the audio recording, Biju Ramesh, the Working President of the association, who has been the whistleblower in the scandal, is heard telling KBHA members that senior LDF leaders had promised him that they would reopen all 418 bars that were shut by the Oommen Chandy government and rescind the current liquor policy if it were to come to power.

Leaders of the CPI(M), including State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, had made the promise, Ramesh is heard claiming. They had also told him that if CPI(M) leader VS Achuthanandan supported the idea, they would help the KBHA tear down the UDF government.

Balakrishnan immediately denied the insinuation. At a news conference at Thiruvananthapuram, he said the allegation was plain nonsense. The CPI(M) was not that stupid to make such promises, he said. He alleged that the audio recording was doctored and that the current head of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) was behind it. He said the move to prosecute police officer R Sukeshan, who investigated the scandal, for allegedly colluding with the bar owners to tarnish the government, was an attempt to terrorise investigators. In the audio, Ramesh claims that Sukeshan, the Vigilance superintendent of police, had urged him to name four ministers as accomplices in the scandal.

The UDF has been accusing the LDF of conspiring with the bar owners to topple the government. The leak of the audio, in which Ramesh claims LDF support, lends credence to the theory.

Meanwhile, the VACB has submitted a ‘quick verification report’ to the Vigilance court at Thrissur absolving Excise Minister K Babu from the charge of taking a bribe from the bar owners. There was no prima facie evidence to support the charge, it said. The Vigilance court had, earlier, asked the VACB to file an FIR against Babu. Following this, Babu had resigned from the Cabinet, but later taken it back after the High Court froze the Vigilance court’s order.

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