CPI(M) Challenges UDF Government to Probe Ministers Named in CMRL Ledger

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday challenged the Congress-led United Democratic Front government in Keralam to investigate Cabinet Ministers allegedly identified by acronyms in a "slush fund ledger" said to have been kept by Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd., a chemical company in which the State government holds a minority stake.

Addressing a press conference, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan said the Income Tax department's original case against the publicly listed company was that it had incurred a loss of ₹152 crore from suspected pay-offs to a range of politicians, including Ministers in the present UDF dispensation.

He said the department's accusation was that the acronyms in the company's account books stood for the "current Chief Minister (V.D. Satheesan), Home Minister (Ramesh Chennithala) and Industries Minister (P.K. Kunhalikutty)."

Mr. Govindan contrasted the responses of those named. Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan, he said, had stated categorically that the initials PV in the account books did not refer to him, while the incumbent Home Minister and Industries Minister had publicly acknowledged accepting election funds from the company. The others, he added, had neither denied nor accepted the Income Tax department's accusation.

According to Mr. Govindan, the Enforcement Directorate had based what he called a politically motivated bid on the department's contentious finding in order to press the UDF government to charge Mr. Vijayan, his daughter T. Veena and former Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas with corruption.

He described the agency's effort to draw the State government into a case against the CPI(M) as heavily ironic, arguing that Ms. Veena's software firm, Exalogic Solution, had transacted with the company under a contractual agreement and that the retainer fee she received as a consultant had come through legal banking channels and was tax-compliant. The fee, he said, was significantly lower than the political donations the UDF Ministers were alleged to have accepted.

Mr. Govindan further contended that the ED had no case against the UDF Ministers and had not sought a State police criminal inquiry into the alleged political pay-offs. Instead, he said, it had built a false case against CPI(M) leaders on the basis of statements obtained from the company's management under duress and later retracted. He accused the UDF government of playing second fiddle to the Central agency as part of a covert understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party during the Assembly elections, calling it the BJP's B-team in Kerala.

He pointed to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where he said governments had dismissed similar demands by the ED against politicians from anti-BJP parties as legally untenable. Mr. Satheesan, by contrast, had insisted on a police inquiry that could carry double-edged legal and political consequences for some of his Cabinet colleagues and for the ruling alliance, including possible violations of election funding rules, Mr. Govindan said.