One would have expected the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala to go on an all out attack against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan during the Legislative Assembly session on August 9 and 10. This is because a recent ruling by an Income Tax body said that the CM’s daughter Veena Vijayan and her company received Rs 1.72 crore over the last three years as monthly payments from the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) despite there being no evidence of any services given in return. However, the Congress-led UDF, which is usually quick to catch on to any allegations minutely connected to the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), has remained largely silent over the findings of the New Delhi bench of the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board.
The subdued response by the Opposition is attributed to the fact that names of some of their leaders have also featured in the I-T department’s report as recipients of the company's money.
At a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram held on Thursday, August 10, Opposition Leader VD Satheesan defended party leaders accepting money from CMRL saying all political parties accept funds from industrialists and businessmen.
"The allegation against the Chief Minister is quite serious. The issue here is that the CM is abusing his official position to engage in corruption. This is not an issue that needs to be raised as submission. If the corruption allegation is brought on the floor of the house as Rule 50 motion it would get rejected. This is why it wasn't raised in the Assembly today," Satheesan said, adding that UDF is not averse to raising the issue.
As per the I-T report, during the raids at the residence of Suresh Kumar, the CFO of CMRL, they managed to seize documents containing details of payments made to politicians, temples, government servants and media houses. Some of the names of the recipients were given in an abbreviated manner such as “PV”, “OC”, “KK”, “IK” and “RC”.
The CFO Suresh Kumar, in a sworn statement to the I-T Department said that the various short forms are that of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (PV), Kunhali Kutty (KK), Oommen Chandy (OC), Ramesh Chennithala (RC) and so on. “The payments were made on the instructions of our Managing Director SN Sasidharan Kartha,” Suresh Kumar told the I-T officials. The payments were said to be made in cash.
The CMRL CFO went on to say that the payments were made to these political leaders, media houses, police etc. for smooth functioning of their business, especially since CMRL obtains Ilmenite which is mined by PSUs as their raw material. “This inturn is having environmental impact, due to that we receive a large number of threats to obstruct our business or to hinder smooth functioning of our day to day activities. In order to overcome these threats and to obtain co-operation we make a number of payments to members/ functionaries of various political parties, state police, media houses so as to ensure smooth functioning of our day to day activities,” reads Suresh Kumar’s statement to the I-T department.
CMRL is a public limited company engaged in manufacturing of synthetic Rutile, promoted by SN Sasidharan Kartha and Mathew M Cherian. The I-T Department, which investigated the finances of the company in 2019, found that it has been systematically inflating its expenditure and made payments in cash to several individuals including media houses and politicians.