MALAPPURAM : The hands of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are not as clean as he claims, Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan said in Malappuram on Friday.
He was responding to the Karnataka High Court’s order rejecting a petition filed by Exalogic Solutions, the IT firm owned by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter, seeking a stay on a Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) investigation against it.
“The chief minister had earlier claimed that his hands are clean. He also said he is not afraid of any investigation. Then, he brought a lawyer from Delhi, through the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, to file a case objecting to the SFIO investigation,” said Satheesan.
“The chief minister’s daughter approached Karnataka High Court against the investigation. This means that he is afraid of the SFIO investigation, and his hands are not clean, as he had claimed,” he said.
At the same time, the Congress leader said he too is concerned about the SFIO investigation.
“The BJP aims some parliament seats from Kerala, and for that, they may try to put pressure on the CPM through central agency investigations. With the help of the central agencies, the BJP might form a secret pact with the CPM during the election,” he said.
The duration of the SFIO investigation, eight months, is also a cause for concern, Satheesan pointed out.
“The files related to the case can be analysed within one or two weeks. There are findings from two statutory bodies – the Income Tax Interim Board of Settlement and the Registrar of Companies – that confirm the presence of an offence,” he said.
Satheesan further said the LDF government has ruined Kerala financially.
“The CAG audit report confirms the allegations levelled by the opposition in and outside the assembly. The CAG has found that KIIFB and the pension company created an additional liability of `25,874 crore outside the budget. The report also states that the government has hidden this additional liability. The opposition had earlier warned that extra-budgetary borrowing will cause danger,” he said