Till the other day, Mani was sitting pretty. Three vigilance reports had given him a clean chit in the bar bribery case. The KC(M) chief had also managed to return to the Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF), which he had left, on his own terms. The Congress had to concede a Rajya Sabha seat to the KC(M) as part of the deal that preceded Mani’s home-coming. This concession was to accommodate Mani’s son Jose K. Mani’s parliamentary longevity. Jose was not sure of retaining his seat, Kottayam, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Hence the gift of a RS seat from the Congress – a deal in which Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P. K. Kunhalikutty played a key role. Mani had also made it clear that the KC(M) will have to be given more seats in the next assembly elections as well.

However, Mani’s sense of euphoria was rudely shattered when the Vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram refused to accept the closure report filed by the Vigilance And Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) in the bar bribery case against Mani.

The special court’s rejection of the report absolving Mani of all charges has come after considering petitions of CPI(M) stalwart V S Achuthanandan, hotelier Biju Ramesh and LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan, who had moved the court for further probe in the case. The court has also asked the VACB to seek permission from the government for a further probe as the latest amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act has a clause making it mandatory for the VACB to get government’s permission to probe graft cases. The next hearing in the case will be on December 10, 2018.

The court order vindicates VS’s stand. A visibly happy VS said the government must grant permission without any loss of time to the VACB to further probe the case.

It will not be difficult for the LDF government to grant the green signal in the light of the changed political scenario in the state. The CPI(M) was, initially, reluctant to take the case forward as Mani had left the UDF and was in a mood to join the LDF. Mani, however, changed his mind and returned to the UDF just before the Chengannur Assembly by-election.

The court’s decision will provide a fresh impetus to the unrest in the UDF over the ‘hasty’ decision to readmit Mani into the front. Many leaders in the Congress, including former KPCC president V M Sudheeran, had opposed the deal, which saw Mani back in UDF.

It may be mentioned that former vigilance chief Jacob Thomas and former Special investigation Team unit’s SP R Sukeshan had said that there was enough evidence to prosecute Mani in the case. But since then, Sukeshan was pressured to dilute the report into a pro-Mani one.

An extremely significant development is the observation made by the vigilance judge that the investigating officer showed no urgency to gather evidence in the case. He seemed to be in a hurry to close the case and submit a report giving a clean chit to Mani. The officer, the court said, also did not probe the case as directed by the court.

These strong observations must cause grave concern to Mani and his supporters. True, Mani has put up a brave front by saying that he is ready to face any number of probes. But the severe criticism by the vigilance judge against the shoddy investigation into the case is bad news for both Mani and the UDF. If the reinvestigation report goes against Mani, it would be curtains for the KC(M) veteran’s political career. The UDF will also feel the tremors of such an adverse report. That is for sure. And, not surprisingly, any setback to Mani would be politically exploited by the LDF in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, too.

All in all, the coming days could rob Mani, who was at peace with himself and the world, of his peace of mind. (IPA Service)