Thiruvananthapuram: First-time Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan on Friday raised concerns about the credibility of the Income Tax (I-T) returns of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena Vijayan and her husband and state Minister for Tourism P.A. Mohammed Riyas.
On Thursday the Kerala Assembly witnessed a ruckus after Kuzhalnadan was prevented from speaking by the vociferous treasury bench legislators even as Speaker A.N. Shamseer said that the Assembly is not the place where one can say anything, after Kuzhalnadan had sounded that he will expose a clandestine deal between Veena, her IT company and CMRL, a leading mining firm.
On Wednesday, a news item had appeared in Malayala Manorama, a leading vernacular daily, which had reported that CMRL had paid Veena Vijayan and her IT firm Exalogic a sum of Rs 1.72 crore during 2017-2020 for IT services rendered by her firm.
The report said that the Income Tax Appellate Board, while examining the tax returns of CMRL, stumbled upon payments made to Veena and her IT firm. It was also found based on the information provided by a few CMRL officials that no services were rendered by her firm to the company.
On Friday, Kuzhalnadan told the media that the money received by Veena doesn’t reflect in her I-T returns or in that of her husband’s.
“Even the CPI-M has said that she collected the money for the services rendered by her company. If that is the case, why is it missing from the I-T returns,” Kuzhalnadan asked.
–IANS