Staggred by the Rs 1-crore bribery mess involving a top manager of its own mouthpiece Desabhimani, followed quickly by the expose of the newspaper taking Rs 2 crore from a wanted lottery businessman now in hiding, the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala went on the backfoot on Wednesday.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan announced in the state Assembly that the Government has now decided to file a case against K Venugopal, Deputy General Manager of Desabhimani whom the party was forced to expel last week. Venugopal had reportedly wangled Rs 1 crore from the owner of a huge finance company facing cases of cheating the public and violating RBI guidelines, promising to get the Left Government to get him off the legal hook.

The man had gone on to complain to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and the party state committee after nothing appeared to be happening. CPI(M) sources say Venugopal’s hasty expulsion from the party came just as V S was about to have the complaint probed.

Venugopal is an acolyte of CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan,

and the Opposition has been demanding a full fledged probe alleging that he had picked

up the bribe on behalf of top party leaders.

Incidentally, the Home Minister’s announcement today comes after CPI(M) national General Secretary Prakash Karat penned an article in the Desabhimani on Tuesday, mentioning how the bribe issue had badly hurt the party. The Government has also got the police to issue a notice to another finance company floated by the kin of the earlier one’s owner, set up on the same lines.

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