Congress, BJP ask Vijayan to explain about alleged payment received by his daughter

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress and the BJP on Wednesday asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to explain a news item that appeared in a leading vernacular daily on the alleged payment received by the CM's daughter Veena Vijayan from a mining company.

The news report that appeared in Wednesday’s Malayala Manorama said that CMRL, a company that is engaged in mining, had paid Veena Vijayan and her IT firm Exalogica a sum of Rs 1.72 crore during 2017-2020 for IT services rendered.

The newspaper reports that the Income Tax Appellate Board while examining the tax returns of CMRL stumbled upon payments made to the Veena and her IT firm. It was also found out based on information provided by a few CMRL company officials that there was no services rendered by her firm to the company.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said the situation in Kerala these days is that it's State Tourism Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas who often comes out with statements and Veena is his wife so we all wish to hear from not just Vijayan alone but from him as well on this matter.

“With Vijayan holding the Home and Vigilance portfolio, the need of the hour is a probe by an external agency. He often says when one has nothing to hide, one needn’t have any fear and if that’s the case, we all are waiting to hear from him about the announcement of a probe,” said Muraleedharan.

Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnaden said this cannot be dismissed as an allegation as the tax authorities have said this based on documents that has now come out.

“The money has been received into the bank account of Veena and Vijayan should come clean on why was this money received by her,” said Kuzhalnaden and added that he wishes to quote former PM Manmohan Singh’s words- “organised loot and institutionalised corruption,” is what is happening in Kerala now..

State Congress President and Lok Sabha member K. Sudhakaran said a judicial probe has to be announced by Vijayan.

“When an allegation surfaced of Rs 1 million against me in a flash, a probe was announced and when this runs into crores, in all fairness a judicial probe into this has to be announced by Vijayan,” said Sudhakaran.