Now,Kerala hotelier says Vayalar Ravi got bribe too

After engulfing an ex-SC judge,bribery allegations have now reached Cong-led UPA govt at Centre.

The allegation by Congress MP from Kerala,K Sudhakaran,that a former Supreme Court judge received payoffs in a case involving liquor licences,is snowballing into a major controversy.

The judge has come out to deny the charges and a bar owner has not only accused Sudhakaran of brokering the payoff deal,he has also named Union Minister Vayalar Ravi as one of the recipients of the alleged kickbacks.

Justice S R Pandian,former acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court who retired from the apex court 17 years ago,called the charges baseless and mischievous but admitted that he did know a person who is alleged to be his middleman.

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Sudhakaran had alleged that a Supreme Court judge accepted Rs 36 lakh as a bribe in 1994 in two instalments of Rs 21 lakh and Rs 15 lakh to lift a Kerala High Court ban on 21 liquor bar licences in the state,but refused to name the judge.

Although the MP claimed he would name the judge only in court,a hotelier from his constituency of Kannur,Jose Illikkal,went ahead and alleged that Pandian was the judge and claimed that he (the judge) operated through a middleman named Dharma Prakash.

Calling this uncharitable allegation totally baseless,false and very mischievous, the retired judge told The Indian Express from his Chennai residence: Now that the court is seized with the matter,I will wait for more information. Then I will decide what course of action is to be taken against them…I have to take action (against those who raised the charges). What kind of a person have I become in public perception? Only God will understand my agony.

Was I the single judge in the case or was it a Division Bench hearing it? Every time,I have passed orders only on the basis of the merit of the case, he said.

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He said he had not even seen Sudhakaran the MP claimed he was present when money changed hands but admitted he did know Dharma Prakash.

His was the only hotel in Anna Nagar (where the judge resides) which I used to visit occasionally, said Pandian.

Illikkal has claimed that Sudhakaran was not a mere spectator but a real facilitator in the deal between the bar licensees and the judge. A former partner of Geetha Bar Hotel in Kannur,Illikkal told reporters today that Sudhakaran facilitated the transfer of the payoff to the judge. Illikkal said Geetha was one of the 21 bars which got the licence from the then Congress government.

Illikkal claimed Sudhakaran got his friend Dharma Prakash a businessman from Chennai to act as the intermediary and pay Rs 26 lakh to the Supreme Court judge in two instalments of Rs 21 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. This is Rs 10 lakh lower than the Rs 36 lakh figure mentioned by the MP.

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Illikkal also claimed that Vayalar Ravi,then Congress chief in Kerala and now a Union Cabinet minister,had been given Rs 10 lakh; then Chief Minister K Karunakaran Rs 10 lakh and Excise Minister Raghuchandra Bal Rs 10 lakh for securing the bar licence.

The money for Karunakaran was paid through his daughter Padmaja Venugopal,now a party leader,he alleged.

CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said a case should be registered against Ravi,Padmaja and Bal based on Illikals statements.

Opposition leader Oommen Chandy said it was not proper on the part of Vijayan to demand a probe against Ravi and other leaders based on allegations of a bar owner. When contacted,Ravi declined to comment.