The morale of the BJP which has been buoyed by the recent two visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the State took a severe beating as a senior party activist expressed doubts over the action/inaction of V Muraleedharan, Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
T G Mohan Das, former convener of the Kerala BJP’s intellectual wing, said he was aghast over the indecisiveness of the Union Minister regarding the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal case involving Veena Mohammed Riyaz, daughter of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and a private sand mining company in Kochi.
Exalogics, a Bangalore based software form owned by Veena has reportedly received Rs 1.7 crore from the mining company according to the department of Income Tax. But she has failed time and again to furnish to the Income Tax Department details about the kind of work executed by her company to the sand mining company.
The finding by the Income Tax Department is that an amount of Rs 2 crore has been exchanged by the mining company to Veeen’s Eexalogic Ltd between 2017 to 2020. The Interim Board for Settlement of the Income Tax Department has found that though there was a deal between Veena’s company and the sand mining firm, no work has been executed by the software firm and the amount received by the chief minister’s daughter is enmeshed in mystery.
The Bangalore office of the Registrar of Companies ordered a probe into the whole deal by a high-level team of officials from the Ministry of Company Affairs. But it is not known whether the probe is being pursued. Being a representative of Kerala in the council of ministers, it was the responsibility of Muraleedharan to ensure the speedy investigation by Central agencies into the scam. But we are yet to see any kind of action in this issue,” Mohan Das told media persons the other day.
The CPI(M) dominated Kerala media preferred to black out the statement made by Mohan Das giving credence to allegations by the Congress that there was a deal between the comrades and the BJP in the State. “It is not a big job for Muraleedharan to get this scam investigated by central agencies. But his inaction has given rise to doubts in the minds of party cadres about a possible secret deal between the CPI(M) and the BJP,” said Mohan Das.
The stance of Muraleedharan in the 2019 gold smuggling scam too has caused resentment among the BJP’s state leadership.