No unaccounted money in party’s bank accounts, says CPI(M) in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 6 (PTI) The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Saturday said the party was maintaining transparency when it came to its bank accounts and funds and the transaction details have already been submitted before the Election Commission and the Income Tax Department. If the party has to submit details of any accounts, it is ready to furnish all the necessary information before any agency, CPI (M) state secretary M V Govindan said. He was replying to a question regarding media reports about the freezing of the bank account in the name of the party’s Thrissur District Committee by the Income Tax Department. Govindan did not deny the reports and said the party has no unaccounted money in its bank accounts. When the reporters asked about the reported summoning of senior party leader and CPI(M)’s Thrissur District Secretary M M Varghese by the Income Tax Department in this regard, he said let them call anyone and the party has no fear or concern about it. “We have bank accounts and funds…But it has documents also. We have no unaccounted money,” Govindan said. The veteran leader accused the Central agencies and the media of attempting to tarnish the image of the Marxist party by raising baseless allegations without any evidence.

“We have bank accounts…and we have submitted all the details before the Election Commission and the Income Tax Department,” he explained. Govindan further alleged that the actions by the Central agencies against opposition parties were part of the fascist agenda being implemented by the BJP-led union government. Even Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was put behind the bar in the name of the liquor policy scam and what else they couldn’t do, Govindan asked. In a press statement issued later, the CPI(M) State Secretariat said the freezing of the accounts of the party’s Thrissur District Committee is ‘highly condemnable”. The CPI(M) is a party which submits the details of its income and expenditure to the Income Tax Department and the Election Commission every year without any fail and the bank account details of the Thrissur District Committee were also submitted, it said.

The party alleged that the act of freezing the bank accounts was part of the BJP government’s decision to use the Central agencies to settle their grudges in the wake of the elections. The Income Tax Department has frozen the account without giving any prior notice and without asking for any explanation, it further charged. “The IT Department has adopted a very wrong step in this regard,” the CPI(M) said. Registering a strong protest against such actions, the Marxist Party also alleged that such moves were part of the policy of the BJP-led union government to hunt down the opposition parties and the governments led by them.