The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Friday rallied to defend Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted his daughter and IT entrepreneur T. Veena for allegedly using her software firm as a front for laundering “political pay-offs” from a Kochi-based mining firm during the 2017-2021 period.
Party State secretary M.V. Govindan said the media and the Opposition had yet again brewed a toxic stew of conspiracy theories and misinformation to demonise and dehumanise Mr. Vijayan and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections by wilfully casting his daughter’s legitimate transactions with the mining firm in a suspicious light.
He said the BJP subverted Central regulators, including an income tax (I-T) interim settlement board, to cast aspersions on the retainer fee received by Ms. Veena’s IT consultancy for maintaining the mining firm’s software.
