The Hindu : Kerala News : Charges a cover-up operation: Hassan

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Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Kerala

Charges a cover-up operation: Hassan

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesman M.M. Hassan on Tuesday termed the Vigilance probe into the charge that KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala had drawn money from the Himalaya group an attempt of the CPI(M) leadership to cover up the “crore corruption” charges that a section in that party was facing.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Hassan said the KPCC would politically face such foisted charges and would launch a counter-campaign. He said the two-year-old trumped up charges had been raked up to conceal the Marxist party’s embarrassment in the Deshabhimani bond and LiS cases. The party had hired a lawyer who had earlier retracted from his allegations when confronted with a legal notice. It was preposterous that Mr. Chennithala could have pulled off any deal especi ally when the BJP was in power at the Centre. Besides, the Centre does not freely give away Rs.100 crore as grant to any voluntary agency. And no such grant is usually given without the State Government’s knowledge and the District Collector’s clearance. The charges were contradictory in nature and would not stand legal scrutiny, he said.

He said that the charges had been raised by an MLA known to be close to CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. Raising an allegation through a submission was itself irregular. In reply to a question, Mr. Hassan said he was of the opinion that the Speaker should have used his discretion.

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