'Whistleblower bar owner being used against Kerala government'

Whistleblower bar owner Biju Ramesh is being used as a tool by the Left opposition to unseat the present Kerala government, a minister said on Tuesday.

State Minister for Excise K. Babu told reporters here that Ramesh has now become a tool in the hands of the Left opposition and it is trying to unseat the government by raising baseless allegations.

"Yesterday (on Monday), after he came out from the court after giving a statement under Section 164 of the CrPC, he told the media that I too had taken bribe in the bar scam case. I challenge him to come out with facts of when, how and where I took it," said Babu.

"On December 15 last year, Ramesh along with a few Left opposition leaders met at the residence of a CPI-M legislator to plot the conspiracy of how to pull down the government, using the bar scam case," said Babu.

He also gave out the audio recordings of Ramesh in support of his allegation.

Last October, Ramesh spilled the beans that state Finance Minister K.M. Mani took a bribe of Rs 1 crore to open the bars closed down under the state's new liquor policy.

To cool down things, the vigilance department was asked to probe the allegation against Mani, and it began a probe and made Mani an accused in the case.

Since then, the Left opposition has been up in arms, demanding the resignation of Mani.

At that time, Ramesh had said that not just Mani alone but other ministers also had taken bribes. As the vigilance department probe was underway, they asked Ramesh to give his statement in front of a magistrate and he did it so on Monday.

Meanwhile, Ramesh has dismissed Babu's allegation that he met CPI-M leaders to conspire on how to bring the incumbent government in Kerala down. Ramesh said that he met CPI-M leaders Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to discuss labour issues, which would arise because of the new liquor policy.

"I have never met these leaders alone and when I did, the leaders of the Bar Hotel Owners Association were with me and we discussed only the labour issues," said Ramesh.

Leader of Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan in a press statement demanded that a case against Babu be registered the way it was done against Mani.

"If Babu has any morals left, he should immediately step down in the wake of the new revelations and not cling on to power like Mani," said Achuthanandan.