KOCHI: Kerala Excise Minister K Babu resigned today hours after a Thrissur court ordered the Vigilance department to register an FIR against him in the bar bribery scam.
He is the second minister to quit the Congress-led Ommen Chandy government after then Finance Minister K M Mani of Kerala Congress (M) resigned in November last over the multi-crore scandal, giving jitters to the UDF Government in Kerala ahead of the coming assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference here, Babu said he had handed over his resignation to Chief Minister Chandy and was quitting on moral grounds even though no FIR had been registered against him as of now.
Earlier in the day, the Vigilance Court in Thrissur directed the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to register a case against Babu over corruption charges against him in the scam.
Terming the Vigilance court verdict as “unnatural”, Babu said he would go ahead with legal proceedings to prove his innocence.
In an apparent reference to the liquor policy of the UDF government to close down more than 700 bar hotels as part of its prohibition plan, he described himself as a ‘martyr’ for implementing a government scheme for the welfare of the society.(agencies)
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