Court to check Bargate diary

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In view of a petition alleging that former vigilance director Shanker Reddy made unlawful interventions in the bar bribery case against former finance minister K.M. Mani, the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Court (Vigilance) here has decided to examine the case diary. Considering the private petition, the court ordered to retain two volumes of the case diary — volume eight and nine — in the court for perusal. The court maintained that a detailed examination was required to ascertain whether Mr Reddy gave any unlawful directions to SP R. Sukesan who probed the case.

The case has been posted to Friday. Though the entire case diary was earlier produced by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) before the court, the court only wanted to examine the two volumes and allowed VACB to take back other volumes. The petitioner Payichara Navaz alleged that during the investigation Mr  Reddy gave an unlawful direction to Sukesan to close the case.

It may be recalled that earlier there were reports that Mr Sukesan said in a report filed before the court that Mr Reddy sabotaged the probe. However, it later came to light Mr Sukesan had not made any adverse remarks against Mr Reddy, while seeking court’s permission for a further probe into the case. He only cited that certain new fact pertaining to the alleged corruption came to his notice and he sought permission for further probe.