News Brief
Kerala: Not Just Veena Vijayan, CMRL Allegedly Paid Money To CM Pinarayi Vijayan, UDF Leaders Like Oomen Chandy, Kunhalikutty Too
Pinarayi Vijayan (L), T Veena (R)
Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), the company which has come under scrutiny for paying Rs 1.72 crore to Veena Vijayan and her company, Exalogic Solutions, despite not rendering any services, has also allegedly paid her father, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and United Democratic Front (UDF) politicians such as former chief minister Oomen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, PK Kunhalikutty and VK Ibrahim Kunju, reported Onmanorama.
The report states that the Income Tax department had seized a diary from the bedroom of the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) KS Suresh Kumar that mentioned the abbreviations of people paid by the company and Suresh Kumar had told the department that the abbreviations 'PV', 'OC', 'RC', 'KK' and 'IK' referred to the politicians mentioned above.
Further, it states that Suresh Kumar had told the department that these payments were in order to avoid disruption to the company's business as ilmenite, a raw material used by it, was harmful to the environment.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Surendran and Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan have demanded an independent investigation into the issue.
Muraleedharan said that the investigation must not be done by the Vigilance department as CM Vijayan heads it.
Surendran said that it must be probed if the CM's family had received money through other channels except bank transfers. Further, he said that the national leadership of the CPI(M) must ask for an explanation.
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