Kasaragod (Kerala), Oct 14 (PTI) A day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan denied that his son had been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the opposition Congress-led UDF on Tuesday urged him to give a clear reply instead of speaking emotionally.
Speaking to reporters at Kanhangadu here, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, V D Satheesan, accused the CM of not responding to any of the questions related to the issue with clarity.
He said the ED has confirmed that a notice was served to Vijayan’s son addressed to Cliff House, his official residence, and now it is the CM who must explain why it was issued.
“The CM should not respond emotionally — that is not what Kerala wants to hear. What the state expected from him was a clear explanation of the reason behind the notice,” the LoP said.
On Vijayan’s criticism against the opposition for raising the matter, Satheesan said even CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby had commented about it. So why should the opposition stay away? Targeting the ED, he said it was for the central agency to explain why the notice that had been sent to the CM’s son was kept “secret”.
“Under what kind of pressure or under what hidden influences was the investigation dropped? I have unofficially learnt that there was an instruction from higher authorities to stop further proceedings. Whether that is true or not, only the ED can clarify,” Satheesan said.
He further said it remains unclear whether the reported direction to halt the follow-up came from senior officials or from political leadership.
“This must be made transparent. It seems clear that the chief minister will not clarify it. He has responded to everything else except this issue. Now it is the ED that must answer,” the Congress leader said.
He said since the beginning, the UDF has been alleging that the BJP and the central government are trying to shield Vijayan.
In non-BJP-ruled states like Karnataka and Telangana, the ED is used as a political weapon against leaders. But in Kerala, despite a case existing, it is being quietly buried, Satheesan alleged.
Stating that it raises suspicion about the central agency’s integrity as well, he said, “Let the ED explain why the notice was issued. Was it perhaps done only to settle certain political matters ahead of elections?” Meanwhile, CPI (M) general secretary M A Baby criticised media reports with regard to the matter and said he didn’t confirm whether the CM’s son received the ED notice.
“There is no doubt for me, as well as CM Vijayan, that all these reports are absurd,” he told reporters in New Delhi. But it is still unclear whether that absurdity was created by the ED or the media, he added.
CM Vijayan on Monday dismissed reports that his son, Vivek Kiran, had received a summons from the ED in connection with a money laundering case.
“If a summons had been issued, we would have received it. We have never seen it. I never got it, and my son never told me about receiving any such summons,” Vijayan has said. PTI LGK KH
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