A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unleashed an attack on the Kerala CPI(M) for the alleged pay-off by a sand mining company and the swindling of money from the cooperative banks in the State, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is on a fire fighting mission.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while election rallies at Thrissur and Kattakkada on Monday had said that poor people’s hard earned money worth one lakh crore rupees which was invested in the cooperative banks in Kerala has been embezzled by the CPI(M) leaders. “It was the Centre which cautioned the State Government about this massive misappropriation of public money following the Kerala’s allegation that the State’s coffers were empty,” the Prime Minister had said.
The CPI(M) leadership, shocked over the charge, remained incommunicado till Tuesday afternoon about the charge levelled by Modi. By afternoon, while addressing a media meet, Chief Minister Vijayan claimed that there was no financial misappropriation of any kind. “If the cooperative banks report about any loss, the State Government would take up the issue and the money would be returned to the investors,” said Vijayan.
But the chief minister turned furious when reporters asked him about the Enforcement Directorate registering a case against the monthly pay-off by a Kochi based sand mining company. The chief minister shouted down the media reporters who raised the issue.
The beleaguered Marxists roped in the services of former party secretary Prakash Karat who questioned the intervention of the ED in this case. “The ED has no authority to investigate issues associated with the payment made by a company to another.
The ED could investigate only cases linked to Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” said Karat while speaking to reporters at Thiruvananthapuram. The Marxist leader and his spouse Brinda Karat would travel across Kerala to convince the electorate that there was no pay-off or misappropriation of money from the cooperative Banks. The ED’s charge is that the a private sand mining company paid hundreds of crores to persons in the government inclusing the close relations of the chief minister. On Monday, the ED had summoned the managers of the company for questioning. ‘
There were media reports that Veena Mohammed Riyaz, daughter of chief minister Vijayan has been listed as a beneficiary of the monthly pay-off by the sand mining company. Hundreds of crores rupees have been paid by the sand mining company to Exalogic Solutions, the Bangalore based company owned by Veena Riyaz. Neither Vijayan nor the CPI(M) have been able to give a convincing reply to the question what kind of services were rendered by a software company to a sand mining company.
