A confidential document from the Income Tax Department, submitted to the Interim Settlement Board, has exposed the acceptance of ‘illegal’ funds by politicians across party lines in Kerala from the state-owned Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL).
The document reveals an extensive list of recipients who have received money from CMRL. Notably, leaders of various parties like Congress, CPM, Indian Union Muslim League, CPI, and BJP are included in this list.
Among the beneficiaries are parliament members, legislative assembly members, former ministers, area leaders of political parties, as well as retired and serving IAS and IPS officers.
Detailed records exist regarding the amount paid to each individual on the list. The Interim Settlement Board’s documents have disclosed only a fraction of the recipients, with the cash payments varying from lakhs to crores.
The IT Department asserts that these cash payments breach the law, and political parties can’t categorize them as donations.
In the coming steps, the department plans to investigate the beneficiaries to validate the payments and ascertain the legitimacy of the recorded amounts.
Malayala Manorama’s August 9 issue was the first to report the IT Settlement Board’s findings. The report indicated that Chief Minister’s daughter, Veena Vijayan, and her company, Exalogic Solutions, received substantial payments of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh per month for three years, accumulating to a total of Rs 1.72 crore from CMRL. The report noted that Exalogic had supposedly engaged in marketing consultancy and software services under an agreement with CMRL.
Contrary to this claim, the Income Tax investigation exposed that no such services were provided, yet the consistent monthly payments persisted.
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