ALAPPUZHA: Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) investigation into the CMRL-Exalogic case was part of a political move aimed at weakening the LDF and the CPM.
He alleged that the ED action was politically motivated and accused the BJP and RSS of targeting the CPM and LDF, while alleging that the UDF was also supporting the move. “The LDF will strongly resist the politically motivated efforts,” he said.
Addressing the first meeting of the district leadership forum in Alappuzha, Pinarayi questioned the basis of the allegations against his daughter Veena’s IT firm, Exalogic. He said the company had provided services to several clients and that all legally payable taxes had been remitted.
“From the beginning, the ED has proceeded as if ‘it is not you but your father whom we are looking at’,” Pinarayi said. He also questioned why a legally contracted service provided by one company to another should be treated as wrongdoing.
Pinarayi said Exalogic had not provided services only to CMRL and referred to an investigation into a payment made in connection with services provided to a school run by a prominent charity organisation in Kerala. “The ED had enquired about that service and tried to convert it into a service provided to a terrorist group, but they failed,” he said.
He also said the agreement between Exalogic and CMRL was entered into years before Veena’s marriage and that the payments cited in the case were received before the marriage.
Around 130 representatives elected from the party are attending the meeting, which will conclude on Sunday.