Kerala High Court closes BJP leader's plea for probe into CM Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter's firm

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday closed the petition moved by BJP leader Shone George seeking an investigation into Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena T's company under the Companies Act and action against it by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).

With his plea being disposed of by the court, it also brought to a close the application moved by him recently alleging that Vijayan's daughter's now defunct company, Exalogic, 'parked' huge sums in an account in Abu Dhabi and that Canadian company SNC Lavalin routed funds to the USA through it.

Meanwhile, Shone George, a lawyer and son of veteran politician P C George, and CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac engaged in a war of words on social media platform Facebook regarding the application moved by the BJP leader.

Isaac, also the former Finance Minister of Kerala, contended in his Facebook post that Veena's firm and the company in UAE that George referred to were two different entities.

The CPI(M) leader also said that the company in UAE and its Malayalee owners have no political connection either.

Terming George as a "vexatious litigant", Isaac had urged the high court not to allow him to withdraw his plea.

He had also said that the BJP leader came up with the new allegations when the Congress-led opposition was in low spirits after Mathew Kuzhalnadan's plea, for a probe against Vijayan over alleged financial transactions between a private mining company and Veena's IT firm, was dismissed by a vigilance court.

George, responding to Isaac's contentions, said that the CPI(M) leader was trying to divert the topic.

He challenged the CPI(M) leader to say that Veena's firm does not have a bank account in the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank with herself and one Suneesh M as signatories.

George, in his post, also asked whether Isaac was aware of Veena's bank accounts and the financial transactions in them.

The BJP leader challenged the former finance minister to either answer these queries or file a defamation case against him.

George filed the petition seeking SFIO probe into Veena's firm Exalogic following the controversy which erupted in Kerala after a Malayalam daily reported last year that Kochi-based mining company CMRL had paid a total of Rs 1.72 crore to the chief minister's daughter between 2017 and 2020.

The news report had cited the ruling of an interim board for settlement and said that CMRL previously had an agreement with Veena's IT firm for consultancy and software support services.

It had also alleged that although no service was rendered by her firm, the amount was paid on a monthly basis "due to her relationship with a prominent person".