CMRL pay-off case: Keralam VACB registers two FIRs, Pinarayi Vijayan, Veena, Mohamed Riyas among accused

The Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has registered two separate cases in connection with the allegations surrounding the financial transactions between Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) and Exalogic Solutions Pvt. Ltd. involving former Chief Minister and present Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter T. Veena and her husband, former Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas, MLA.

Mr. Vijayan has been included in the one of the two first information reports (FIR), which concerns the alleged corruption and payments made by CMRL to Exalogic Solutions, a now-defunct IT company owned by Ms. Veena, the second accused in the case.

Exalogic Solutions has been included as the third accused, while S.N. Sasidharan Kartha, managing director of CMRL, and Suresh Kumar, former chief financial officer of CMRL, are the fourth and fifth accused, respectively. CMRL and its associate concern, Empower India Capital Investments Pvt. Ltd. are listed as the sixth and seventh accused, respectively.

Charges against Pinarayi

According to the FIR, Mr. Vijayan has been accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy with the others, abusing his official position and adopting corrupt means to obtain illicit pecuniary benefits for himself, his daughter and her company from 2016 to 2020. Consequently, they were allegedly paid a total sum of ₹3.28 crore by the sixth and seventh accused “under the guise of Information Technology Consultancy and Marketing Services”.

The accused have been booked under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018; and the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to criminal misconduct by a public servant and criminal conspiracy.

Hawala transactions

Mr. Riyas and Ms. Veena have been booked as the first and second accused respectively in the second case, in which they have been accused of involvement in hawala transactions and transfer of illicit cash through intermediaries to foreign countries.

The other accused in the case are Kozhikode natives Shaijal alias Shyjal Muhammad, Nikhil P., Waris alias Hassan Varish, Faijaz V.P., Nandulal M., Subair Karuvampoyil and other unknown persons.

The FIR states that handwritten notes seized from Ms. Veena’s residence by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May allegedly disclosed that she maintained the accounts on behalf of her husband. The notes purportedly contained the description of several crores of rupees against the names of the other accused, who are Mr. Riyas’s friends. The sums were “admitted to be prospective investments for a business venture”. Another “red note” seized from the residence allegedly contained details of “extensive local and overseas electronic transactions” to Faijaz, the sixth accused, who is considered a UAE-based associate of the couple.

The provisions invoked in the case include those pertaining to criminal misconduct by a public servant through intentional self-enrichment and criminal conspiracy under the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018; and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

High Court directive

The registration of the two cases comes in the wake of a Kerala High Court directive, which required the State government to register cases in the corruption allegations.

The court intervened after a petition challenged the government’s decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry through the Crime Branch instead of immediately registering an FIR on the basis of information supplied by the ED.

The ED had forwarded a communication to the State Police Chief under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, requesting action in relation to suspected offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.