Thiruvananthapuram: Top Congress leaders in Kerala on Tuesday dared Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to order a probe into the revelations made by a former top journalist of the party organ- Deshabhimani.
Those who demanded Vijayan to register a case on the revelation included Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan and State Congress president K.Sudhakaran but party MP Benny Behanan wrote to the State Police chief to register a case and investigate the revelation.
G.Sakthidharan, who was a top journalist in the eighties and nineties at Deshabhimani was close to stalwarts like V.S.Achuthanandan and EMS Nampoothiripad, through his Face book has (though has not explicitly named Vijayan) dropped numerous hints that it was him when he stayed for two days at the Kochi office of the party organ and counted money over Rs two crore and took it in an Innova car and a present State Minister also travelled with him to the state capital.
Though Sakthidharan has not named Vijayan, Satheesan while speaking to the media named Vijayan and challenged him to register a case and order a probe into the revelations made by the once top former party journalist. “I challenge Vijayan to register a case if he has the guts. We all saw how the Police registered cases when allegations were made against Sudhakaran and against me.
“In Kerala, double standards are being followed especially when registering cases as at the drop of a hat cases are registered against Opposition leaders, while there is nothing even when damning allegations against the ruling front leaders are levelled,” said Satheesan.
Sudhakaran said Sakthidharan also reveals another incident where Rs two million was given to Vijayan and he took one packet. “ As I also hail from Kannur, none knows Vijayan better than me as we are almost in the same age group. Vijayan is one person who likes darkness as he does all things in the dark. We also now hear a media report on how he was part of a land deal to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore. When Vijayan has no qualms to register cases against us, steps should be taken to probe these allegations,” said Sudhakaran.
–IANS