Kerala High Court seeks govt reply on bargate in a week

Kochi: Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the state government to file a statement explaining the allegations levelled by Mr V.S. Sunilkumar MLA on the bargate against Finance Minister K.M. Mani.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A.M. Shafique granted one week time for the state to file the statement.

A section of bar owners had alleged that Mr Mani had sought Rs 5 crore as bribe and that they had given him Rs 1 crore in the bar licence issue.

Mr Sunilkumar moved the court seeking a directive to the director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to conclude the preliminary inquiry into the allegations of bribery in seven days.

Senior counsel Ranjith Thampan appearing for the petitioner argued that the apex court had fixed a time limit of 15 days generally and six weeks in exceptional cases for concluding the preliminary inquiry and for registering the FIR  in criminal cases.

He argued that in the present case,  there was no exceptional circumstances and so a high level political conspiracy was  behind the non registering of a crime.

Considering the contentions,  the court orally observed that the state government should give answers to all the questions raised by the petitioner.

Advocate General K.P. Dandapani submitted that the state would file all the details in one week.

The petitioner argued that registration of FIR was  mandatory under section 154 of the code, if the information disclosed commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry was permissible in such a situation.

However, in spite of getting information regarding the allegation of commission of a cognizable offence, the state police chief and Vigilance director as well as the local police officers had not registered a crime based on the revelation by the bar owner.