Ernakulam: In a setback to CM Pinarayi Vijayan and the LDF government, the Kerala high court has served notice to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter Veena Vijayan following a petition filed by Mathew Kuzhalnadan seeking a detailed investigation into the CMRL (Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited)-Exalogic financial transactions.
Exalogic is a software firm owned by Veena Vijayan, daughter of Pinarayi Vijayan.
Earlier, a vigilance court had rejected the petition filed by the Congress leader Mathew Kuzhalnadan where the court stated that the petition does not contain valid evidence and it has mere allegations and that the case does not fall under the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PMLA).
The Vigilance Court had also criticised Kuzhalnadan’s petition by observing that it strengthened the argument that the allegation was politically motivated prompting him to move the High Court with a request to give a direction to re-examine this observation of the Vigilance Court. The monthly pay-off controversy is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate.
The court will hear the matter on July 2. Meanwhile, the court decided to hear the petition filed by Gireesh Babu of Kalamassery, who died during the pendency of the case, on the same matter on July 3.
The Enforcement Directorate has started a probe based on the Income Tax probe which revealed that CMRL had paid Rs 1.72 crore to Exalogic Solution under the guise of providing software services. Another national agency- Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) is conducting an investigation against CMRL regarding Rs 95 crores paid to various persons including political leaders and trade unions revealed during an Income tax probe conducted against the CMRL in 2019.
It was revealed that CMRL signed an agreement with Veena Vijayan, daughter of Pinarayi Vijayan to obtain marketing consultancy services in 2016. For the service, Veena was paid Rs five lakhs each per month. Another agreement was signed by CMRL with Exalogic for providing software support to the company in 2017. The agreement was made that Exalogic would get Rs 3 lakhs each per month for the service. However, during the Income Tax probe, top officials of CMRL gave statements that they had not received any service from Veena and Exalogic till now.
In a setback to CM Pinarayi Vijayan and the LDF government, the Kerala high court has served notice to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter Veena Vijayan following a petition filed by Mathew Kuzhalnadan seeking a detailed investigation into the CMRL (Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited)-Exalogic financial transactions Kerala States News India: Top News India, States News, States News Headlines, Online State News India, State Politics news
