THE turmoil in Kerala’s ruling establishment over bar bribery and solar scams continued with the state witnessing a series of fresh revelations made by the solar case accused while deposing before a judicial commission, strictures from the vigilance court and resignation and subsequent re-induction of excise minister K Babu, fresh charges made by bar owners against home minister Ramesh Chennithala and health minister V S Shivakumar, Saritha’s new set of bribery allegations against MLAs in the chief minister’s camp, and a contempt of court case against the information and culture minister. All these incidents are interconnected in different ways. While there was temporary respite for the excise minister in the bar bribery scam, chief minister Oommen Chandy faced heat in the solar scam. The multi-crore solar scam continued to create a stir in Kerala as the state witnessed fresh revelations made by prime accused in the case, Sarita S Nair. While deposing before the inquiry commission, Saritha made fresh charges against chief minister Oommen Chandy and those associated with him and submitted digital evidence. The fresh revelations have put the chief minister and his ministerial colleagues in the back foot. Saritha submitted to the enquiry commission digital copy of her telephonic conversation with the chief minister’s gunman Salim Raj, Congress leader Thampanoor Ravi, MLA Benni Behanan, and Abraha Kalamannil, Chairman of Mount Zion College. She handed over four audio CDs and a video CD to the Justice Shivarajan Commission. The audio tapes later aired by various news channels showed that Congress leaders and Salim Raj were trying to influence her not to say a single word against the chief minister. Earlier, Saritha had revealed that the chief minister asked her to make his son Chandy Oommen as the director of her company. She also said that she had made allegations of sexual abuse against Congress MLA A P Abdullakkutti under the direction of the chief minister. In the bar bribery scam, Biju Ramesh, the working president of bar owners’ association, whose statement led to the court’s stricture and resignation of finance minister K M Mani made a series of fresh allegations. Ramesh claimed that he had given Rs 2 crore to home minister Ramesh Chennithala and Rs 25 lakh to health minister V S Shivakumar. The money was given to Chennithala when he was president of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee. He also claimed that Rs 25 crore collected from bar owners in the state were distributed among the ministers. Shivakumar received the money just before by-election to the Neyyattinkara assembly constituency held in 2012. Meanwhile, excise minister K Babu, a lieutenant of Oommen Chandy, was re-inducted in the Cabinet a week after his resignation following an order of Thrissur Vigilance Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge S S Vasan asking the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) to register a case against the minister in the bar licence renewal case and proceed with investigation. He was re-inducted into the cabinet after the high court stayed the vigilance court’s order. Prior to this stay order, Babu had made serious allegations against vigilance court judge Vasan. A new development related to the bar bribery scam was the high court issuing summons to information and culture minister K C Jospeh to appear before it in a contempt of court case. The high court took up the case on the basis of a petition filed by MLA V Shivan Kutti. Joseph had made derogatory remarks against Justice Alexander Thomas when the latter spoke about duty of the vigilance department in the bar bribery case against K M Mani. The bar bribery scandal surfaced in 2014 following charges made by Ramesh that Mani was paid bribe for renewal of bar licences after the state government put restrictions on bars except those in five-star hotel. He also claimed that bribe money was paid to several other ministers and leaders of the ruling UDF.