CJ Roy's death triggers political ripples in poll-bound Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: The death of Malayali businessman C J Roy in Bengaluru last week has created ripples in poll-bound Kerala, fuelling multiple theories on reasons behind the death of one of the richest real estate developers in the state in the midst of an Income Tax investigation.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called the incident “a blot on the tax administration of the country” that has caused “shock and sorrow” among the people, business community and civil society in the state. In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama, Vijayan demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

Roy, the chairman of Confident Group, shot himself dead during a search operation conducted by the IT department at his Bengaluru residence on January 30.

Opposition Congress too has accused the BJP led NDA government at the Centre of using central agencies to influence electoral outcome in the state.

"It is quite surprising to see that Kerala chief minister is urging the BJP government at the centre to go for a judicial probe into the death of Roy that happened in Congress-ruled Karnataka even as the BJP is accused of misusing central agency," said political commentator Joseph Mathew who also served as an advisor to former Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan.

Interestingly, both CPI (M) and opposition Congress have been careful not to touch upon the merits of the investigations being carried out against Roy and his businesses. They have instead attacked the BJP on the alleged misuse of the central agencies for political purposes.

The controversy surrounding Roy's death has another political dimension to it.

Christians constitute about 20% of the state electorate. Concentrated in the central region, some powerful business families from the community are seen to be traditionally aligned to the Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF).

In the last five years, however, both BJP and the Left have tried to make inroads into this constituency.

Hibi Eden, the Congress MP from Kerala on Monday gave a notice for adjournment motion on the issue which was rejected by the speaker.

Speaking to DH, Eden cited a case from his state where “the MD of Kitex Garments and President of Ernakulam based Twenty20 party announced joining NDA, reportedly to evade Enforcement Directorate scrutiny.”

Political analyst C A Josukutty said that even as traditionally Christian community in Kerala used to be considered as pro-Congress, the business groups used to offer support to all political parties.

"Congress and CPI (M) could be using the incident to strengthen their allegation that the BJP is misusing central agencies for political gains. But it is too early to attribute any politics over the incident as the facts were still unknown," he said.

The BJP is trying to defend the row with party Kerala president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is also an industrialist from Bengaluru, expressing his grief over Roy's death and at the same time stating that Income Tax raids were quite common in the real estate business.

(With inputs from DHNS, Delhi)