Kochi | The Congress on Wednesday expressed shock over fresh allegations that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter holds a bank account in a Gulf nation and sought his reaction to the charges.
The opposition party termed the allegations as "serious" and urged the CM to make it clear whether his daughter T Veena's now defunct company Exalogic held a bank account in the foreign country.
Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly V D Satheesan's response came after BJP leader Shone George moved the High Court levelling fresh charges against the CM's daughter.
He claimed that Veena and another person close to her family had a joint account in the foreign bank, and several prominent companies had transferred money to it.
Soon after the BJP leader levelled the charges, Satheesan asked Vijayan to make it clear whether such an account existed.
"Allegations that have been raised against CM Vijayan's daughter and her company Exalogic are shocking. Does the CM's daughter and a person connected to him have a joint account abroad? Has money come into this account? The CM should answer," the LoP said.
Referring to the allegation, he said money was deposited in this account by prominent companies like SNC Lavlin and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"The CM has the right to say whether this is correct (or not). If the allegation is false, legal action should be taken against those who made it," he said.
Taking a dig at Vijayan, the Congress leader said the usual practice is to "hide in the den of silence" when the allegations are raised against him and his family.
He alleged that the CPI (M)-Sangh Parivar nexus was the reason for sabotaging the investigation against the Marxist party leaders in various cases.
Shone George has filed an application in the Kerala High Court, alleging that Chief Minister Pinarayi 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.
Vijayan is accused of being involved in the alleged corruption in awarding a contract to Canadian firm SNC Lavalin when he was Kerala Power Minister in 1996, which had allegedly caused loss to the state exchequer.
Vijayan and two others were discharged in the case by a special court in Thiruvananthapuram in 2013, a verdict upheld by the Kerala High Court in 2017 when the CBI filed an appeal against the discharge.
The central agency then filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the HC order. The matter is still pending before the apex court.
The application filed by Shone George, a lawyer and son of veteran politician P C George, has been moved as part of his plea in the HC seeking an investigation into Vijayan's daughter's company under the Companies Act and action against it by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).
