Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the ruling CPM's leadership have denied the allegations that a party local leader collected a bribe from a doctor offering an appointment as a Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) member by influencing public works minister P A Mohamed Riyas, who is also the son-in-law of the CM.
Vijayan said in the Assembly on Tuesday that apart from media reports, no such irregularities came to his attention. CPM Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan also maintained the same stand. He told reporters that a section of the media and CPM's political rivals were raising such baseless allegations to tarnish the image of Riyas and the CPM government.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan of the Congress, who raised the issue in the assembly, said that the CPM was trying to settle the bribery row within the party instead of going for a police investigation. The allegation had affected the credibility of the KPSC, he said.
The opposition staged a walkout in protest against the government's decision not to seek a police probe into the allegation.
A CPM local leader of Kozhikode allegedly offered a KPSC member post to a woman homoeo doctor from Kozhikode by demanding Rs 60 lakh several months ago and accepting Rs 22 lakh as advance. He allegedly told them that Riyas and a couple of other senior party leaders from Kozhikode would be helping with the appointment.
But as the doctor didn't get the appointment, the doctor and her husband reportedly complained to the CPM leadership.