Sakthidharan's allegations: Police trying to sabotage probe against Kerala CM, says Chennithala

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress veteran Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday alleged that the LDF government is trying to sabotage the investigation into graft allegations levelled by former editorial board member of CPM mouthpiece ‘Deshabhimani'  G Sakthidharan against a state cabinet minister. He added that the case was handed over to ADGP by DGP in a move to undermine the investigation. 

Sakthidharan raised grave allegations against a CPM leader by claiming that the person received large amounts of money from 'big shots' and that he had witnessed it. 

It has widely speculated that Sakthidharan, a VS Achuthanandan loyalist, spoke about Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his post. Responding to the allegation, Congress demanded a probe against Chief Minister and asked him to step down from his office. 

Disappointed by the lacklustre approach of police on the matter, Chennithala on Wednesday said the state government is trying to prolong the probe as a move to sabotage the investigation. He also alleged that Union Government is colluding with the state government by not launching a probe into the incident. 

Chennithala added that by targeting KPCC president K Sudhakaran, the government could not eliminate Congress in Kerala.  

Last day, G Sakthidharan's remark placed CPM in a tough spot. His remark targeting the "minister" forced the government to save its face over graft allegations. 

"He is very popular from Trivandrum to Time Square, now the trillionaire son of an ordinary toddy tapper. Once I helped him count huge amounts of currency gifted by several big shots. It happened at my erstwhile office at Kaloor in Cochin for two consecutive days, where he stayed," Sakthidharan wrote in a Facebook post. 

"I remember the amount counted when I was still there. It was two crore thirty-five thousand. In the meantime, I along with my colleague, rushed to buy two large reed mats for packing the currency. The amount was kept in the dicky of an Innova car that rode to Trivandrum late at night. In the car was a minister in the present cabinet."