By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala’s ruling Communist Party Of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Friday suffered a huge setback when a special court ordered a vigilance probe in two corruption scandals involving the party mouthpiece Deshabhimani.
Responding to a plea by the Indian Lawyers Congress, the special vigilance court asked the vigilance director to register a case and inquire into the Rs.30 million corruption allegations.
The first case pertains to Deshabhimani collecting Rs.20 million in the form of a bond from lottery kingpin S. Martin.
The second case involves its general manager K. Venugopal, who has been expelled both from the CPI-M and the newspaper, following allegations that he had taken a bribe of Rs.10 million from a controversial private financial institution, which was closed down last year.
Venugopal had allegedly told executives of the firm that he would solve their problems.
Both these issues have come as useful ammunition for the Congress-led opposition that has stalled assembly proceedings on several occasions.
Reports also indicate that this probe is likely to worsen the factional feud in the CPI-M, where Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan heads one faction and party secretary Pinnarayi Vijayan the other.