Vijayan knew everything including FCRA violation, alleges Congress

Thiruvananthapuram, March 3 (IANS) Former Congress MLA Anil Akkara, who played a key role in CBI probing the Life Mission case, on Friday came out with "evidence" to prove that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was aware of everything, including the alleged violation of The Foreign Contribution Act, 2010 in the building of the flat complex at Wadakkanchery in Thrissur.

Akkarra -- the then MLA of Wadakkanchery -- dug into numerous papers and found large scale violations in the project and wrote to the CBI in 2020, the Congress said.

Soon, the CBI took up this case and unearthed the involvement of the gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh and her team which included the then Principal secretary to Vijayan- M.Sivasankar, who is presently in jail in the case.

And now with Vijayan's assistant private secretary C.M.Raveendran also asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate at Kochi on Tuesday, the CPI(M)-led Left government is said to be trying to wash off its hands saying that the government had no role in it. This project was funded by a UAE-based charity organisation- Red Crescent and the construction of flats was handed over to a Kerala based private firm- Unitac.

But on Friday, Akkara came up with "crucial documents" before the media establishing that Vijayan knew everything.

"The first meeting for handing over this project to the UAE-based organisation was taken with Vijayan chairing the meeting at his official residence and I released all the documents substantiating it. Vijayan knew everything as he held a meeting in the presence of officials from the UAE-based organisation. This is being examined by the CBI also. One of the chat messages of Swapna also reveals about this meeting. Vijayan knew everything," said Akkara and released the documents of the meeting.

"However, I am not going to hand over these documents to the investigative agencies, instead I will file a petition in the case filed by the CBI on this case in the Supreme Court and submit it before the court," said Akkara.

On Tuesday, State Minister for Local Self Government M.B.Rajesh categorically told the ongoing Assembly session that the state government has no role in this project as funds came from UAE and was being constructed by a private firm.

He further pointed out that the then legislator who first came out with these allegations about this housing project for the poorest of the poor was defeated by over 15,000 votes in the 2021 Assembly polls.

When Congress legislator Mathew Kozhalnaden challenged Vijayan to say he doesn't know Swapna, the chief minister lost his cool in the Assembly and said that he has not done anything for anyone.

Responding to his statement, Swapna told the media that she had met not only the CM but his family and worked for their business. She claimed that she is ready to come out with evidence to substantiate her claims.

And now with Akkara also coming up with evidence against Vijayan, all eyes are set on Raveendran to see if he turns up before the ED.