By P Sreekumaran
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is at it again. Having failed in all its previous attempts to frame former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Pinarayi Vijayan, the agency has come up with a ‘new script’ to incriminate him, his daughter Veena and son-in-law and former minister Mohammed Riyas in what has come to be known as the CMRL-Exalogic “pay-off” case.
The CPI(M) has decided to fight the ED’s move legally and politically. This was made clear by CPI(M) state secretary M. V. Govindan, who said attempts to intimidate the CPI(M) would not succeed.
In a detailed report to the Kerala Police chief, the ED has sought the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Pinarayi, Riyas and Veena.
A defiant Pinarayi Vijayan termed the ED’s request to the state police chief to file a case against him and his family under the Prevention of Corruption Act(PCA) as a “shameful” subversion of the criminal justice system for political ends.
One fine morning, Pinarayi said in his strongly-worded statement, that the ED officials came to his house at the behest of their political masters, hell-bent on ensnaring him in a criminal case to discredit the party and him politically. The ED’s examination yielded no incriminating evidence. Now, the ED is attempting a new tack to achieve the political aim of its controllers and those who play second fiddle to its masters by sending a brazenly false set of accusations, masked as a report, to the State’s law enforcement to implicate him in a corruption case, Pinarayi averred.
Pinarayi also stoutly defended his daughter, who is at the centre of the controversy. The ED had accused Veena’s now-defunct firm, Exalogic Solutions, a software consultancy, of receiving sizable amounts of money from the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), a firm in which the Kerala Government has a minority stake, allegedly without providing any tangible service during the 2017-2021 period. The ED has also sought to implicate Riyas, accusing him of using his Gulf connections to launder illicit wealth.
Vijayan said Veena’s transactions with CMRL were above board through banking channels and tax-compliant. The payment was made through official banking channels and duly accounted for, while all applicable taxes had also been paid. There is no secrecy, he added.
Pinarayi also lashed out at the media of mindlessly parroting the cherry-picked information leaked to them by CPI(M)’s political rivals to destroy the party’s credibility by seeking to tarnish him. “Mastheads and bold headlines baying for attention to spite the party and me will not, as in the past, pass muster in the court or among the people. My life is an open book,” Pinarayi thundered. He also blamed the ED for using statements obtained from approvers as evidence against the CPI(M).
Needless to say, ED’s request has put the VD Satheesan Government into a tight spot. It is damned if it registers a case and damned if it does not. If the UDF Government files a case, it exposes itself to the charge of striking a deal with the BJP. If it does not file a case, the Government risks losing its credibility among the party’s rank and file. Filing a case would expose several Congress and IUML leaders to the possibility of being framed by the ED in future. The reason: The diary the ED claims to have stumbled upon contains donations to the tune of Rs 182 crore made by the CMRL to many political leaders. The list has many names, including late Oommen Chandy, present Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and Industries Minister and IUML leader P. K. Kunhalikutty. The senior leaders are on record saying that they had accepted political funding from the CMRL! The fact that Veena was singled out and investigated clearly smacked of political vendetta. No probe has been ordered against Chennithala and Kunhalikutty. Even the courts have wondered why no probe has been ordered against some leaders whose names are there in the list!
This being the reality, the Congress and the UDF Government have signaled that it would not rush into filing a case. The decision would be taken only on the basis of sound legal opinion, KPCC chief Sunny Joseph said. Hasty registration of a case would expose the party at the national level of accusations of double standards. It may be mentioned that the Congress is vehemently opposed to the Modi Government’s “subversion” of central agencies to target political opponents, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Moreover, the Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court have rejected Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan’s plea to book Vijayan on corruption charges in the CMRL-Exalogic episode. The apex court even warned Mathew of imposing a fine of Rs 10 lakh if he comes up with no evidence to back up his charges.
In a latest development, Mohammed Riyas has alleged that the ED is intimidating people to issue statements against him, Veena and Pinarayi. The statements thus obtained are being sent to the media as official press releases. Riyas further said that the ED had asked Veena to give a statement against her father. However, she declined to do so. The ED had spread wrong information about her testimony too. For instance, it was reported that she had testified that her now-defunct company, Exalogic had not provided any services to CMRL. The boot was on the other leg, Riyas said, adding that Veena had actually given a detailed statement on the services provided to CMRL and the payment received through bank accounts and the taxes paid.
Last but not the least, Riyas alleged that a businessman friend of his was also threated and forced by ED to testify against him, Veena and Vijayan. The friend has since sent a letter to the ED retracting his earlier statement, obtained under duress. The agency is reported to have threatened to implicate the friend’s 22-year-old daughter in the case and put her behind the bars! He was asked: who was he trying to protect, his daughter or someone else’s daughter! (IPA Service)
