Thiruvananthapuram: Testimonies given by 12 bar owners, in claim of to Congress leaders including Ramesh Chennithala, is now out. Each said they had paid Rs 1 lakh as political fund contribution and 50,000 rupees as legal fund for the purpose. While the testimonies were given to investigation team early on, the Vigilance did not initiate any kind of action on their submissions.
On March 3 of 2013, Bar Hotel Association had called an emergency meeting in Ernakulam to decide on the bribe remittances required toward license renewals. Following this, 80 lakh rupees were collected from bar hotels in Thiruvananthapuram alone.
In his secret testimony, Bar Association leader Biju Ramesh told the court that a total of Rs 10 crore was paid in bribes to individuals named by then Excise Minister K Babu including the minister himself. Rs 1 crore was paid to Ramesh Chennithala, Rs 50 lakh to K Babu and Rs 25 lakh to Sivakumar, Biju said.
Pursuant to the claims, the govt sought consent from governor and speaker for conduct of preliminary investigations into the allegations.
