K M Mani refuses to resign from the cabinet
AMN /
Kerala High Court has upheld the vigilance court order for further probe in the bar bribery case in which State’s Finance Minister KM Mani is allegedly involved. The high court order came yesterday during a hearing of a petition filed by the state vigilance department challenging the observations of a lower court against the vigilance director.
K M Mani may be left with little option but to quit after the High Court endorsement of Vigilance court order to further investigate the bar bribery case involving the key Congress ally.
Disposing of a plea from the Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to quash the Vigilance court order, Justice
B Kamal Pasha said: “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion. People will have anxiety about any further probe if the minister continues… I leave it to the conscience of the accused person whether to continue as a minister.”
Meanwhile K M Mani has refused to resign from the cabinet. Mani has threatened to withdraw support of his 9 MLAs to the UDF government if forced to resign.
However there there is a split in Kerala Congress led by K M Mani. A faction led by P J Joseph has demanded the resignation of K M Mani and they will declare this in the party steering committee meeting which will be held son. At present, three MLAs are against Mani in his party and are demanding the resignation of the finance minister.