PM’s office suppressed letter seeking CBI probe: Kerala CM

Referring to other UDF charge that Arun Kumar had received money from sandalwood unit owners in 2003,he said if opposition leader Oommen Chandy gave in writing this,he was ready to order by a probe any agency or official of Chandy’s suggestion.

Achuthanandan said his letter to the the Prime Minister seeking a CBI probe was written more than two months back in accordance with the due procedures but it had been suppressed by the PMO without taking any action on it.

The 87-year-old CPI (M) veteran said he had asked his son to initiate legal steps on other personal allegations levelled against him by the UDF leaders.

Releasing copies of his letters to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,he said he had consistently fought against lottery mafia and with the prevention of sale of Bhutan lotteries the government had been able to arrest the flow of a huge sum to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore out of the state in the last eight months.

Refuting Chidrambaram’s contention that Achuthanandan had not followed the due procedures in seeking the CBI probe,he said it was not with the Union Home Minister that he took up this demand but with the Prime Minister.

What had been sought from Chidrambaram was a ban on sale of other-state lotteries as it had become clear that they had been operating in violation of the Central Lottery Act,he said.

“The letter written to the Prime Ministers Office has been lying suppressed in PMO for the last 67 days”,he said.

Chidambaram should reply as to why he did not take action on Kerala’s demand for a ban on the lotteries which plundered the poor people of Kerala and alleged that former was “lying on the matter with the intention of helping the lottery mafia.”

Asked if his image had been dented by the allegations against his son,an unperturbed Achuthanandan asserted that “people of Kerala people know me very well and the struggles I have waged against corruption.”