Thiruvananthapuram: After the Pinarayi Vijayan govt withdrew the blanket permission to CBI to probe any case in Kerala, the ruling front has begun a cold war against the central agencies, saying they are motivated by political considerations.
The CPI-M state secretariat meeting on Friday decided to launch a statewide campaign against the central agencies, seeking to target CM Vijayan.
The CM had earlier stopped short of calling the central agencies names, but some ministers and party colleagues have mounted a campaign against the probe agencies, in the wake of the overnight ED raid at the house of Bineesh Kodiyeri to unearth his benami deals.
Vijayan himself seems to be hardening stand even as ED summoned his additional private secretary CM Raveendran, the key link between former principal secretary M Sivasanakar and the CM. Raveendran excused himself from appearing before ED, saying he was down with Covid.
The state govt is trying hard to checkmate the central agencies. Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan has post-haste referred a complaint by a ruling party MLA against ED seeking files relating to the controversial Life Mission project to the Ethics Committee, inviting protests from opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala to the effect the speaker is misusing his powers for the government.
The MLA has alleged ED calling for the files has led to stalling of the project. Key gold smuggling suspect and her ‘mentor’ Sivasankar are alleged to have plotted to demand over Rs4 crore as commission in a Life Mission project funded by UAE charity Red Crescent. The Speaker’s action follows a controversial move by the Commission for Children’s Rights to file a case against ED officials for violating the rights of the CPI-M secy’s granddaughter, who had to spent a night with her mother as ED officials were conducting the raid.
