Congress, BJP welcome Karnataka HC order dismissing plea of Kerala CM’s daughter’s firm

PTI, Feb 17, 2024, 8:40 AM IST

The Congress and the BJP in Kerala on Friday welcomed the Karnataka High Court’s dismissal of a plea challenging a probe against the firm owned by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T.

The court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by Exalogic Solutions, which had challenged the investigation into its affairs by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).

While the Congress leaders claimed that the firm had moved the high court as Vijayan is afraid of the investigation, the BJP said the order proves that even the court was not convinced that the probe is politically motivated as claimed by the ruling CPI(M) in the state.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that the high court was not convinced by the arguments that the SFIO probe is politically motivated.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who too welcomed the court order, said an investigation was justified as the ”so-called” software firm (Exalogic) has allegedly received hundreds of crores of rupees from companies without providing any service.

”I welcome the decision of Karnataka High Court to allow this investigation…into sitting CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter’s company receiving mysterious payments without delivering any service,” he said.

Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly V D Satheesan said the plea in the high court indicated that the CM and his daughter were afraid of the SFIO probe. ”It also shows that his (CM’s) hands are not clean,” the senior Congress leader said.

Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, who was the first to raise allegations of financial irregularities against the CM’s daughter’s firm, said the court order is not unexpected.

He too said the order indicates that the probe is not politically motivated as claimed by the CPI(M) and questioned whether in the face of the latest development, the Left party is willing to withdraw from its stand that there is a political witch hunt against the CM.

Welcoming the court order, Satheesan questioned why the probe duration has been fixed at eight months.

”We are not entirely convinced by the SFIO probe as the duration for it has been fixed at eight months. Why is that much time required to go through the documents? Anyways, we will wait and see,” he said. Earlier this month, the Kerala High Court had declined to stay the SFIO probe into state-run KSIDC, Exalogic and Kochi-based mines company CMRL.

The order had come on a plea moved by KSIDC seeking to quash the central government order directing an investigation by SFIO under the Companies Act into the affairs of KSIDC.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs also ordered an SFIO probe against Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) and Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd.

A controversy erupted in Kerala after a Malayalam daily reported last year that CMRL had paid a total of Rs 1.72 crore to the chief minister’s daughter between 2017 and 2020.

The news report cited the ruling of an interim board for settlement and said that CMRL previously had an agreement with Veena’s IT firm for consultancy and software support services.

It also alleged that though no service was rendered by her firm, the amount was paid on a monthly basis ”due to her relationship with a prominent person”.

The report also cited findings by the Registrar of Companies (ROC) against her firm.

Quoting the ROC report, the Congress-led UDF opposition had claimed that offences of receiving money using false documents and without providing services have been committed by Veena’s firm.