The Kerala assembly proceedings were disrupted for a second day on Tuesday after opposition Congress lawmaker Mathew Kuzhalnadan read out references to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the remand report of former bureaucrat M Sivasankar, who was arrested in a corruption case this month.
The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) members objected as Kuzhalnadan began quoting from the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s report over the arrest in connection with alleged irregularities in the Life Mission free housing scheme for the homeless.
“Your lefthand man [Vijayan] is in jail and righthand man [additional private secretary C M Raveendran] has been summoned. The remand report says the chief minister had several rounds of talks with the accused at his official residence before the Life Mission project was signed. Can you deny it?” Kuzhalnadan asked Vijayan while introducing an adjournment motion.
Raveendran was called for questioning in the Life Mission case on Monday but he failed to turn up.
The irregularities in the scheme came to light when central agencies were probing the seizure of 30 kg of gold from a diplomatic bag meant to be delivered to the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram in 2020.
The agencies allegedly found ₹one crore cash and two kg of gold from the bank lockers of Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the smuggling case.
Sivasankar, a former principal secretary to Vijayan, also spent 100 days in jail in connection with the smuggling case.
Vijayan denied claims made in the remand report. “I never met anyone mentioned in the report,” he said. He said he did not need the legal advice from Kuzhalnadan when the lawmaker asked him why was not the chief minister filing a defamation case against the ED.
As Vijayan and Kuzhalnadan got into an argument, ruling party members tried to shout the Congress lawmaker down. Law minister P Rajeev intervened and said it was improper to discuss an ongoing case.
Arguments continued as Kuzhalnadan also quoted from purported leaked WhatsApp chats of Suresh, Sivasankar, and Raveendran and prompted speaker A N Shamseer to adjourn the House.
Ruling party members requested Shamseer to remove portions of Kuzhalnadan’s speech from the record. Shamseer ruled the remand report placed in court cannot be quoted in the House.
Rajesh said the central agencies were instruments to “hound opposition” for Congress’s national leadership but the party’s state leaders treat them as holy cows.
House proceedings were disrupted on Monday after heated exchanges between the ruling party and opposition members over police action on protesting Youth Congress workers.
Suresh reportedly told the agencies about the commission taken for clinching a deal with an international aid agency that funded a housing project for flood victims in Thrissur.
She alleged Sivasankar, who retired from the service last month, asked her to keep that money in her locker.
It later emerged that the Union government’s permission was not sought for accepting the foreign contribution to the project.
The Central Bureau of Investigation subsequently registered a case in October 2020 under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The state government insisted the FCRA did not apply and unsuccessfully moved the court to quash the case.
People aware of the matter cited investigation and said ₹18.50 crore was allegedly collected from the foreign aid agency through the UAE consulate and only ₹14.50 crore was spent on the housing project.
The rest of the money or ₹4 crore was allegedly paid to the government and consulate officials as a bribe.