CMRL diary row: After BJP’s charge, Kerala Minister seeks to draw line between election funds and corruption
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 24 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and Kerala Health Minister K. Muraleedharan on Thursday sought to draw a distinction between money received during elections and money allegedly linked to corruption, as the controversy over a diary purportedly belonging to CMRL Managing Director S.N. Sasidharan Kartha gathered momentum.
“Taking money during elections and taking corrupt money are two different things. There may have been money received during the election period. Let any investigation take place. There is no problem even if this diary is investigated,” Muraleedharan said.
His remarks came soon after BJP leader Shone George released a page purportedly from Kartha’s diary, claiming it was part of a document submitted by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) before the court in connection with the CMRL-Exalogic monthly-payment case.
George has questioned why there was no Vigilance investigation against former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the case.
He has also pointed to the presence of names of several political leaders on the diary page and suggested that this was among the reasons for the absence of a Vigilance probe.
The page has names cutting across the political spectrum, including Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, K. Muraleedharan, C.K. Chandrappan, Elamaram Kareem, M.V. Govindan, Hibi Eden, Pannyan Raveendran, S. Sharma, P. Rajeeve, State Minister Shibu Baby John and K.B. Ganesh Kumar.
The emergence of the names has opened a new political front in the controversy, with the focus now shifting to the nature and purpose of the entries in Kartha’s diary.
Muraleedharan said the law should take its own course and indicated that there should be no objection to an investigation into the diary.
“At the same time, Kerala is not a government that will blindly believe whatever the ED says. But if the ED officially asks for something, it has to be carried out,” he said.
The comments assume significance as the state government has already come under political pressure over the Enforcement Directorate’s findings and recommendations in the CMRL-Exalogic case.
The controversy revolves around alleged payments made by CMRL to various individuals and entities, including Exalogic Solutions, a company linked to Veena Vijayan, the daughter of Pinarayi Vijayan.
The diary page released by George has now added a wider political dimension to the issue, with names from both the UDF and LDF appearing in the document.
The immediate question before the investigating agencies is whether the entries represent legitimate political or election-related contributions, business transactions or payments requiring further investigation.
Muraleedharan’s remarks indicate that he is open to scrutiny of the diary, while maintaining that the nature of each payment has to be established before drawing conclusions.
–IANS
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