KOCHI : The Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter Veena T on a revision petition filed by Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, against the Vigilance Court’s order rejecting his plea seeking a Vigilance probe into the alleged financial transactions between CMRL and Exalogic Solution Pvt Ltd.
When the petition came up for hearing, the court was told that “Advocate Gilbert George Correya is taking notice for Respondent 1 (Pinarayi Vijayan) and Respondent 7 (Veena Thaikandiyil).”
Justice K Babu noted this and issued notices to CMRL and Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd.
The Vigilance Court had rejected the MLA’s petition on May 6 citing that the documents produced by Kuzhalnadan were not sufficient to prove the allegations. There was no prima facie evidence to support the allegations and hence the petition didn’t fall within the ambit of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In his revision petition, Kuzhalnadan stated that the Vigilance Court had issued the order without examining the evidence produced by him in detail. The petition was filed based on the findings of the interim settlement board of the Income Tax Department.
The Board found that CMRL had made payments to Exalogic Solutions, a defunct company owned by Veena, without receiving any service.
The petitioner alleged that favours were done by the chief minister to the company in lieu of the payment made to Exalogic. The court will hear the matter on July 2.
Meanwhile, the court decided to hear the petition filed by Gireesh Babu of Kalamassery, who died during the pendency of the case, on the same matter on July 2. The petition was against the order of Vigilance Court, Muvattupuzha, rejecting his plea for a probe in the CMRL pay-off case.