On Friday, the Kerala High Court dismissed a plea by Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, which sought an investigation into alleged financial transactions between the IT firm owned by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter and a private mining company. The plea was dismissed by Justice K Babu, as confirmed by a government lawyer associated with the case. The detailed court order has not yet been made available.
The legal move by Kuzhalnadan came after a vigilance court turned down his request for a probe into the dealings between Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) and Exalogic, the now-defunct IT firm of Vijayan’s daughter, T Veena. The allegations were spotlighted by a Malayalam daily which reported that CMRL had paid a total of Rs 1.72 crore to the chief minister’s daughter between 2017 and 2020.
The interim board for settlement’s ruling was cited in the report, which mentioned that CMRL had previously engaged Veena’s firm for consulting and software support services. However, allegations surfaced claiming that despite no services being rendered by her firm, payments were made on a monthly basis due to Veena’s familial ties to a prominent figure.
