4 months ago
53
The Kerala High Court on Friday issued notices to the Director General of Corporate Affairs; Director, Serious Fraud Investigation Office; and Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) on a petition seeking a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office into the “unauthorised” payments made by the CMRL to various politicians and others in Kerala.
The petition was filed by Shone George. According to him, the Income Tax Settlement Commission had passed an order on a settlement application filed by the company. The order had pointed out grave corporate fraud and corrupt activities by the company to procure its raw material ilmenite. The order said that the company had inflated its expenses by way of sham vendor payments to create huge cash payout for bribing politicians, government servants, and media persons to cover up its illegal business activities. It also revealed creation of a sham consultancy agreement between the CMRL and Exalogic Solutions Private Limited, a software company owned by T. Veena, daughter of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, for the maintenance and management of software. However, the Income Tax authorities had found that no service was rendered by the software company.
The petitioner alleged that there was an organised corporate fraud for manipulating the political system and looting the natural wealth of the State. As per section 210 of the Companies Act, the Centre could conduct an investigation into the affairs of the company on allegation of illegal activities of a company. Besides, Section 212 of the Act empowered the Serious Fraud Investigation Office to proceed against the fraudulent company, its directors, key managerial personnel and other persons.
Justice Devan Ramachandran while issuing the notice said that issue of notice to the Chief Minister and his daughter would be considered in the due course of the next hearing.
