Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday criticised the appointment of K B Pradeep as Special Government Pleader for the Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Boards before the Kerala High Court and demanded a probe into whether any important documents were handed over to him.

Pradeep resigned from the post amid mounting controversy as he had previously represented Smart Creations, one of the prime accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case.

"The Devaswom Minister says he was unaware of the appointment. Decisions like these usually have some political thought behind them. I heard the party state that it did not discuss the matter. If that is the case, the decision rests with the chief minister. The question is why there was such haste in making the appointment," Vijayan said. He also called for an investigation into whether any important documents had been handed over to Pradeep during his brief tenure.

Following Pradeep's resignation, Devaswom Minister K Muraleedharan defended the government's initial decision, stating that Pradeep had been selected for his expertise in criminal law. However, he said the government decided to seek his resignation after devotees raised concerns over the appointment.

Referring to the PM SHRI scheme, Vijayan said that despite the signature, the LDF government did not officially join the scheme. He pointed out that the AAP government in Punjab had initially signed up for the scheme but later attempted to withdraw before eventually rejoining due to financial pressures from the Central government.

"Now the public is concerned about whether the UDF government is taking a U-turn on the issue," he said. Additionally, Senior CPM leader and former General Education Minister V Sivankutty alleged that the UDF government's claim that Kerala had received funds under the PM SHRI scheme was "completely false" and accused it of abandoning its earlier stand against the Centre's education policies.

Sivankutty said Kerala had not implemented the PM SHRI scheme and therefore had not received any funds from the Centre under the programme. "The previous Left government signed the PM SHRI MoU only after the Centre allegedly linked the release of funds under Samagra Shiksha Kerala to the agreement.

The UDF had heavily criticised the scheme when they were in Opposition. General Education Minister N Samsudheen has stated that the government will not make a hasty or unilateral decision. "We will only make a decision after consulting with experts," he told the media.