Kerala UDF govt decides not to accept minister K Babu's resignation

Thiruvananthapuram: The ruling Congress-led UDF on Saturday decided not to accept the resignation of Excise Minister K Babu, who had quit in the wake of the vigilance court ordering registration of an FIR against him in the bar bribery case. The decision was taken at a meeting attended by senior leaders including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and other coalition party leaders. [caption id=“attachment_2605152” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kerala Excise Minister K Babu. Image courtesy CNN-IBN[/caption] The meeting decided that there was no need for Babu to resign as the high court had stayed the vigilance court proceedings against him for two months. After the vigilance court had ordered registering of FIR against Babu, he had resigned on 23 January. However, the chief minister had not accepted his resignation so far. The meeting also urged that former finance minister KM Mani, who had resigned after the high court made some strong observations against him in the bar bribery case, to come back to the cabinet, UDF convener PP Thankachan told reporters after the meeting. Thankachan also said the Vigilance, in its last report, had submitted to the court that there was no evidence against Mani and so it was the UDF desire that he comes back to the cabinet. The UDF meeting also wanted government to probe the alleged conspiracy behind the revelations made by solar case accused Saritha S Nair before the Justice Sivarajan Commission, probing the scam. Saritha’s claims targeting the chief minister showed that the bribe amount had allegedly been paid and she had received it, Thankachan said. The violent agitations by youth outfits of CPM demanding resignation of chief minister, were also part of the conspiracy, he said. The meeting also decided to urge the government to launch a comprehensive probe to bring out those behind the conspiracy, he said. PTI