Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan met the press after a hiatus of six months and fielded a barrage of questions ranging from corruption charges against his family members, Congress’s demand to investigate the alleged political conspiracy to falsely implicate the late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in a sexual misconduct case, rumours about an imminent Cabinet reshuffle, and cooperative sector corruption.
Mr. Vijayan said an Income Tax department forum staffed by Central government officials appeared to have a political axe to grind against him and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) by imputing financial wrongdoing in the legal and transparent transactions between his daughter’s IT firm and a mining company based in Kochi.
He said the forum had passed the order without hearing his daughter, who, in the first place, was not a party to the dispute.
