THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has told the Vigilance Court hearing the bar bribery case there was a lack of evidence to implicate former Finance Minister K M Mani.Vigilance prosecutor C C Augustine told the court there was no evidence to prove Mani had received kickback from the deal. “The statement by the witness who claimed to have seen Mani accepting bribe at Pala could not be relied upon as his mobile phone was located at Ponkunnam at the said time,” Augustine said.
The Vigilance prosecutor’s arguments didn’t spring any surprises as VACB had submitted a report to the court that gave clean-chit to Mani due to lack of evidence. This is the third time the VACB submitted a pro-Mani report before the court.The Vigilance counsel also termed the CD, submitted as the prime piece of evidence by Biju Ramesh, ‘fabricated’ which was proven after scientific verification.