Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter T Veena is in the eye of a storm after the New Delhi bench of the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board ruled that a private company called Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) had paid Veena and her company Exalogic Solutions Rs 1.72 crore over the past three years in spite of not providing any services.

The bench said that Veena and her company had entered into a contract with CMRL to provide it IT, software and marketing services but continued to receive monthly payments of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively without the said services being rendered.

These payments were made during 2017-20.

The Income Tax department had conducted searches at the offices of the company and its officials in 2019 and found evidence of tax evasion and illegal payments to political leaders, bureaucrats, police officials and media houses.

The documents containing the details of the contract with Veena and her company Exalogic Solutions were found during searches at the premises of the company’s Chief Financial Officer KS Suresh Kumar.

The Managing Director SN Sasidharan Kartha and CMRL subsequently submitted a settlement application in November 2020.

According to a report by Onmanorama, Kartha and other senior officials who had stated that no services were provided by Veena’s company Exalogic during the investigation later tried to withdraw their statement through an affidavit but the Income Tax department stood firm.