THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Another attempt to discredit Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter Veena suffered a major setback when the Kerala High Court rejected pleas by Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan and late RTI activist Girish Babu for a probe against the CM.
The duo had sought a probe on the alleged transactions between Exalogic Solutions Limited, the now-defunct company of Veena, and Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL).
In his petition before the special court, Kuzhalnadan had sought a probe into the payment of Rs 1.72 crore to Exalogic by the CMRL, though it had not provided any services to the CMRL. His contention was that the payment had been made to facilitate procurement of mineral sand from the Thottappally spillway, mined by the Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited. The court , however, rejected the plea.
In his appeal to the High Court, Kuzhannadan contended that the special court had wrongly assessed the merit of the case and passed the order. The special court had also failed to consider the binding decision of the Interim Board for Settlement under the Income Tax Act.
The respondents, citing the I-T Act, argued that the Board’s order – a confidential document – cannot be relied upon. Besides, the nature, quantity and satisfaction of the services rendered by Exalogic is a matter to be decided only by the CMRL, the recipient of the service. The alleged confession by the CMRL’s chief financial officer before the Interim Board for settlement has no evidentiary value. In addition, the Director General of Prosecution said no factual foundation of the offences has been made out.
In its order, the Court said what the complainant had placed were only materials highlighting the suspicions, based on the allegations in the complaint, and not facts constituting the alleged offences. The court, however, said that the rejection of the complaint did not prevent the complainant from filing a fresh complaint with adequate materials in the future.
Interestingly, there were reports that several Congress leaders had accepted crores from the CMRL. The names of these leaders had also become public. The leaders themselves had admitted receiving payment.
But, the pro-Congress mainstream media turned a blind eye to these confessions, focusing only on the baseless allegations made against the CM and his daughter. The Exalogic issue is only the latest manifestation of the numerous baseless allegations made by the Opposition and backed by the pro-right media.
There are also reports that repeated judicial setbacks suffered by the Congress have only benefited the Left Democratic Front(LDF). A section within the Congress is unhappy with the attempts being made by Kuzhalnadan to score political brownie points by making baseless allegations against the CM and his daughter. This section wants the party leadership to restrain Kuzhalnadan from bringing a bad name to the Congress repeatedly. (IPA Service)
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