A team of officials representing the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SIFO) under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs carried out an inspection at the corporate office of the Cochin Minerals and Rutiles Ltd (CMRL) at Aluva in Ernakulam district of Kerala on February 5 (Monday) as part of its probe into the alleged illegal payments made by the company to T. Veena, daughter of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and her firm Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd.
It is learnt that the officials checked the documents related to the alleged pay-offs made by the company to Ms. Veena and her firm. Sasidharan Kartha, managing director of the company, was present at the office at the time of the inspection. The inspection team was reportedly led by M. Arun Prasad, deputy director of SFIO, who is the investigating officer.
The SFIO had set up a six-member team after the Union government ordered an investigation under Section 212 (1) (a) & (c) of the Companies Act into the affairs of Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd, the CMRL the and Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) Ltd, a State government entity that has a 13.4% stake in the CMRL. The team has to submit a report before the Centre within eight months, according to an order issued by the Ministry on January 31, 2024.
The controversy had erupted after the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board released a report in August 2023 stating that Ms. Veena and her company had received ₹1.72 crore over the last three years as monthly payments from the CMRL despite there being no evidence of any services given in return.
It had also pointed out that the company had made the payments due to her relationship with a prominent person. The documents seized by the Income Tax department had allegedly included details of payments made to politicians, temples, government servants and media houses. It was also alleged that the CMRL had disbursed around ₹135 crore to political leaders and government officials since 2016.
The Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had demanded that Mr. Vijayan should resign following the SFIO investigation ordered by the Centre.
The Chief Minister had denied the allegations while stating in the Assembly that his daughter had set up her company using the retirement benefits of his wife.
