By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Wednesday reiterated his controversial remark that Muslim businessman Farris Abubacker is to be “hated”, saying he has been “implicated in a kidney racket case in Singapore”.
Achuthanandan last August had termed Abubacker as a person to be “hated”. The remark had caused ripples in the Communist Party of India-Marxist because Abubacker was a close aide of state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
The issue then caused a rift in the faction-ridden party. Eyebrows were raised when the party-backed Kairali TV channel gave a two part interview with Abubacker in which Achuthanandan came under heavy attack.
This issue cropped up two weeks back when an internal party document of CPI-M criticized Achuthanandan by terming his remarks against Abubacker as unwarranted.
To a question about the party document, Achuthanandan Wednesday said that he finds no reason to change his stand.
“Don’t you know Abubacker is implicated in a kidney racket case in Singapore? And to my knowledge that case still stands, hence I stand by what I said about him,” he told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting.