The CPI(M) has already announced that it would return the Rs 2 crore that Desabhimani was exposed to have taken from Santiago Martin, a lottery king on the run now and accused of evading tax worth several hundred crores. This was after Desabhimani initially claimed the amount was taken from Martin’s two sons as a bond, and when that failed to stand, insisted it was really a “deposit” after it transpired that it could not legally issue bonds.

Prakash Karat said in his article that the party mouthpiece could mobilise special investment, and not bonds, “though the term bond was widely used” for such capital mobilisation.

“But when the party cadre and the public raised suspicions about money given by such a tainted individual, the state committee decided to pay back the money...,” says Karat, who had intervened after the Kerala leadership refused to acknowledge anything was wrong.