News reports of SFIO questioning Kerala CM’s daughter Veena Vijayan, in Chennai roils Kerala politics

SFIO probe into Chief Minister's daughter's firm sparks political controversy in Kerala ahead of critical by-elections.

A headline-hogging report that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in Chennai had recorded the statement of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter and owner of a now-dormant IT consultancy last week, Veena Vijayan, dominated television chyrons and elicited sharp reactions from either side of the political aisle in Kerala on Sunday (October 13, 2024).

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran told reporters that nothing would come of the SFIO probe, given the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ‘s [CPI(M)] “tacit” understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national leadership.

He termed the “SFIO summons” to Ms. Veena an eyewash to pull the wool over the public’s eye. He termed the development a high-level political subterfuge orchestrated to occult the CPI(M)-BJP “symbiotic association” in Kerala.

CPI(M) State committee member K. Anil Kumar said that Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), a private firm in which the State-owned Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) has a 14 percent stake, had hired Ms Veeena’s firm Exalogic on a retainer fee as an IT consultant. 

Mr Anil Kumar said the contract was above board, and the firms transacted through bank accounts. Ms Veena had paid her taxes and submitted the requisite documents to various regulatory agents. 

He said the recording of Ms Veena’s statement if at all, was procedural and not inculpatory, as the Congress and BJP portrayed it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman’s political sabre rattling would not pass muster in a court of law or among voters,” he added.

He said the opposition parties, in conjunction with the right-wing media, were making a mountain out of a molehill to denigrate Mr Vijayan and the government in the run-up to the critical by-elections in the Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and the Wayanad Lok Sabha segment.