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Kerala court rejects Cong MLA’s petition against Kerala CM’s daughter
A vigilance court in Kerala on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged suspicious financial transactions between a minerals manufacturer and a software firm owned by the daughter of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan
A vigilance court in Kerala on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged suspicious financial transactions between a minerals manufacturer and a software firm owned by the daughter of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The first-time Congress MLA, in his petition before the court of the enquiry commissioner and special judge, Thiruvananthapuram, had alleged that chief minister Vijayan had “enriched himself unlawfully” by giving undue favours to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) after he came to power and that the company returned the favour by giving monthly payments to Veena T, the daughter of the chief minister, and the now-defunct software consultancy firm she operated in Bengaluru.
The Congress MLA pointed to the ruling of the income-tax interim settlement board last year that confirmed that CMRL gave ₹1.72 crore to Exalogic, the firm owned by Veena, in a three-year period even though the latter had not rendered any services to the mining firm. The MLA also submitted several documents before the vigilance court as alleged evidence of corruption involving the chief minister, his daughter and officials of CMRL.
However, the vigilance court said the records submitted by the complainant do not point to any offence of corruption against the accused.
Referring to the documents submitted by the Congress MLA, special judge Rajakumara MV noted, “I am not able to find that they constitute an offence under section 13 (1)(b) of the PC Act or section 120(B) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In other words, necessary facts constituting corruption are absent in the complaint. Even if facts stated in the complaint are accepted on its face value, they do not constitute the offence alleged.”
The court underlined that it “could not find even a single scrap of paper” supporting the contentions of the complainant that the money paid to Veena and Exalogic were bribes in exchange for undue favours given to CMRL by the state government.
The court also wondered why the complainant had no grievance about the payments made by CMRL to political parties, media houses and police officers as per the extra judicial confession of the company’s chief financial officer.
“He has no case that all those who alleged to have received payments have favoured the CMRL in any manner. He has not voiced any grievance as to other payments. He is also not seeking any investigation or enquiry against them. A question would naturally arise why investigation or enquiry against A1, A6 and A7 alone is sought. This would strengthen the argument that the complaint is politically motivated,” the court said. A1 is CM Vijayan, A6 Exalogic and A7 Veena T in the complaint filed before the court.
Congress MLA Kuzhalnadan, responding to the court verdict, admitted that it was a “legal setback”. However, he added that he will “not run away” from the allegations he made in the case.
“I will read the court order carefully and respond in a detailed manner as to how the court perceived the documents that I submitted. Legally, it is a setback, I admit. But I will not run away from the allegations I made about the case,” he told reporters.
While chief minister Vijayan is out of the country on a personal visit, he has not responded to the court verdict.
However, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] state secretariat welcomed the court order and stated that there was no evidence of any undue favours being given to CMRL by the state government.
“Through this verdict of the vigilance court, scripts that were made with the aim of defaming the chief minister by dragging him into what was a legal transaction between two firms have now been exposed. This story was brought forward with the help of the central government and supported by legal petitions and news platforms at a time when there was nothing bad to say about the state government and the CPI(M),” the party said.
