Team News Riveting
The tarnishing image of ministers in the Kerala government to come clean on the gold smuggling racket has put the media houses in a fix.
Failing to convince people, attempts are on to throttle the independence of the media sector in Kerala. In the series, the wife of a senior minister and prominent leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had sued the state’s prominent media house, Malayala Manorama.
Industries Minister and CPI (M) Central Committee member EP Jayarajan’s wife PK Indira has sent a legal notice to Malayala Manorama and accused the media house of publishing “fake” news in connection to a bank locker transaction she did on September 10.
On Monday, Malayala Manorama reported that PK Indira had made a sudden bank locker transaction.
“PK Indira, who retired as senior manager from the Kannur bank of Kerala, breached quarantine to go to the bank. She was quarantined after giving a sample for the COVID-19 test,” the Manorama had reported.
In a video posted Monday evening, Indira stated that the news was fake. She reportedly did not deny locker transactions and only clarified that she “wasn’t in quarantine at the time.” She added that she had gone to the locker to withdraw something that she wanted to give her grandchild on his/her birthday.
She threatened, an overt signal for other media houses to keep the issue under cold carpet, that her son will file a separate complaint against the “fake news”.
Jayarajan is however finding it hard to defend son Jaison Raj, who allegedly has a friendship with gold scam accused Swapna Suresh.
Some media reports have said that Jaison will soon be questioned over the Life Mission Project. This is a housing project for the poor by the Kerala government which received funds from UAE and Swapna has admitted to receiving commission for the same.
The allegation against Jaison is that he acted as an intermediary for the Life Mission Project and helped Swapna Suresh. There are also allegations that the minister’s son threw a party for Swapna Suresh at a star hotel in 2018. A picture of Jaison with Swapna has been shared on the internet.
The Chief Minister and CPI (M) have refuted the charges and termed it as politically motivated.
