Late Congress leader Oommen Chandy’s son Chandy Oommen has appealed not to involve the names of those who have passed away in any controversies. Speaking to media persons on Thursday, August 10, Chandy was responding to a question about the controversy of Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) making payments to several politicians, including Oommen Chandy. The issue came to light after CMRL sought the New Delhi bench of the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board to exempt payments amounting to Rs 1.72 crore, claiming that it was made to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena Vijayan and her company Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd over three years.
When asked about the controversy, Chandy Oommen said that he was not ready to argue on the issue. “I am not giving any opinion on that. This bye-election is happening when my father’s rituals are barely over. I didn’t even get time to grieve his loss. So I am not there to argue anything about the controversy. But my request is not to involve those who died in such controversies. This is the request of a son,” he said. Congress announced Chandy as the candidate for the bye-election at Puthupally.
According to the IT department, during the raids at the residence of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of CMRL KS Suresh Kumar, they had managed to seize documents containing details of payments made to politicians, temples, government servants and media houses. Some of the names of the recipients were given in an abbreviated manner such as “PV”, “OC”, “KK”, “IK” and “RC”. Suresh Kumar, in a sworn statement to the IT Department, has said that the various short forms are that of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (PV), Kunhali Kutty (KK), Oommen Chandy (OC), Ramesh Chennithala (RC) and so on.
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Kunhali Kutty also reacted to the allegations stating that he has not directly taken any money from the company.