Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan met with his former cabinet colleague KT Jaleel on Thursday amid the controversy surrounding the latter's demand for an Enforcement Directorate probe into a cooperative bank.
The Kerala CM informed the Thavanur MLA that his demand was not acceptable to the party. The party's stance is that ED should not be allowed to meddle in the cases in the cooperative sector.
However, Jaleel denied that he had raised any such demand. The meeting took place at the Chief Minister's Office.
Amid widespread opposition from the party quarters, Jaleel will present himself to the ED on Thursday.
The CM and ruling CPM had made it clear that they were not with Jaleel in his fight against the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Kunhalikutty.
CM Vijayan on Tuesday opposed any sort of probe by ED in the alleged irregularities in the state's cooperative financial institutions, saying the Central agency need not meddle with the cooperative sector.
CPM acting state secretary A Vijayaraghavan called up Jaleel on Wednesday and asked him to be cautious about his statements.
However, Vijayaraghavan clarified on Thursday that the party was against IUML ideology. “Media reports stating that Jaleel does not have the party's support is not true,” he added.
Jaleel and Kunhalikutty have been arch-rivals since the former severed ties with the IUML. Jaleel's allegation is that Kunhalikutty has carried out illegal transactions to the tune of Rs 1,021 crore through the Cooperative bank at AR Nagar in Malappuram district.
As part of his moves against Kunhalikutty, Jaleel had given a statement to ED against the Muslim League leader in connection with the alleged financial irregularities committed by the Muslim League leader in the name of financial activities of the Muslim League mouthpiece in the state.
Talking to reporters in Kochi on September 2 after giving his statement, Jaleel said the ED had taken note of the allegations he had levelled against Kunhalikutty both inside and outside the State Assembly and had issued a notice to him for taking his statement. Kunhalikutty is the leader of IUML in the Assembly.
Jaleel had said he has provided the ED with some documents to prove his allegations and will provide more documents in connection with the case.