In the latest instance, it was the turn of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Excise Minister K Babu and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob to be caught in a corruption controversy.

The corruption charges against the two ministers have come at a time when the ruling coalition government seemed to have managed to put an end to the Ganesh Kumar episode, which had plunged the UDF Government into a major crisis.

It was CPI(M) MLA Babu Pallissery who dropped a bombshell in the State Assembly by submitting, in writing, that the Excise Minister had accepted a Rs 100 crore bribe from liquor companies to raise the price of liquor. Babu Pallisery further alleged that UB Chairman Vilay Mallya was present at the meeting held in Dubai, and that the Rs 100 crore bribe was received by Shafi Mather, Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister, on behalf of the Excise Minister and the Chief Minister.

The Dubai meeting, Pallisery alleged, decided to increase the price of wine and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by six per cent. The liquor companies were allegedly assured that free pricing, to be introduced, would enable them to quote a price that would be accepted by the Beverages Corporation!

The CPI(M) MLA also alleged that the decision to give the contract to stick holograms on liquor bottles to a Karnataka firm, instead of the state-owned C-DIT, had caused the state exchequer a loss of Rs 40 crore.

The Excise Minister, the UB group and the Chief Minister’s economic adviser Shafi Mather have promptly denied the allegations, terming them as totally baseless. Mather even went to the extent of challenging the CPI(M) MLA to make the allegations outside the Assembly.

The Minister said the prices were raised by the Beverages Corporation directors board and that the government had nothing to do with it. All that the liquor companies got from the resultant price rise was an additional revenue of Rs 49.9 crore. This being the reality, how can a Rs 100 crore corruption take place, he has asked.

The Minister, on his part, surprised the Opposition by claiming that a former LDF minister had met him during the meeting with the representatives of liquor companies with a request that liquor prices be increased.

But the refusal of the Minister to face a judicial enquiry, demanded by Leader of the Opposition V S Achuthanandan, into the allegation has strengthened the public perception that something is fishy.

Babu faced another corruption charge on the second consecutive day in the assembly, this time from Raju Abraham, MLA. The Minister was accused of being party to a Rs 15.5-crore corrupt deal pertaining to the award of a work for the removal of hyacinth from water bodies as part of the Kuttanad package.

The allegation against Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob was made, again on the floor of the Assembly, by CPI(M) MLA TV Rajesh. Rajesh accused the Minister of being involved in a Rs 24-crore corruption scam in the civil supplies and registration departments under him. The Minister, who denied the charge, said it was part of a concerted effort to defame him. Incidentally, this is the third corruption allegation against Anoop Jacob within one year! Anoop had become a minister last year following the death of his father, TM Jacob, who was also the Civil Supplies Minister in the Oommen Chandy Government.

As if this was not enough, the Government has been stunned by the revelation of a sex scandal against a UDF MLA. The MLA has of course denied the allegation made by the young woman and her mother. But, following a complaint made by the victim and her daughter, CI of the Women’s Cell has been directed to investigate it.

Needless to say, the series of corruption charges and sleaze rows have further damaged the already-tarnished image of the UDF Government. Speculation is rife in the corridors of power that more skeletons are likely to tumble out of the ruling coalition’s cupboard. (IPA Service)