KOCHI: Raising fresh allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T, Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan on Tuesday said Kerala is witnessing ‘organised loot and institutionalised corruption’ under the Left government.
Addressing a news conference in Thodupuzha, Kuzhalnadan said the amount that Pinarayi’s daughter Veena received was several times more than what has come out in the order of the Interim Board of Settlement under the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The report said Veena and her firm Exalogic Solutions Private Ltd received Rs 1.72 crore for a period from Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd, though it had not provided any software or marketing service to the mineral processing company in 2019.
“Can Veena and Exalogic Solutions prove that this was the only payment from CMRL? Also, CMRL is just one company. There could be several other companies making such payments to Veena,” the Muvattupuzha MLA alleged. Kuzhalnadan said the audit report of Exalogic Solutions says that it’s an education software company. “What business does a mining company have to do with an education software company?” he asked.
He said bribes are being paid through shell companies to a person’s bank account. “This is the modus operandi adopted here. Shell companies pay the money to a person’s account, who in turn pays the 18% GST to the government. Through this method, black money is laundered in a systematic manner,” Kuzhalnadan said. This is a deviation from the Congress leader’s earlier statement that Veena had not paid any GST.
He said he has Veena’s full bank account details but has refrained from making them public due to “ethical and legal issues”. “The people of Kerala will be shocked if they come to know the entire details of the money received by Veena. Is CPM ready to disclose the details?” asked Kuzhalnadan.