I am being targeted,says Achuthanandan
Thiruvananthapuram, June 10 (IANS) Kerala's former Marxist chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan Friday said he was being victimised by the United Democratic Front (UDF) government, which was "raking up baseless cases" against his son.
"Baseless cases are being raked up against my son. This is done to target me," Achuthanandan told a Malayalam television channel in Hyderabad, where the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader is attending the party's central committee meeting.
He added: "As the chief minister, I even wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that if need be they can include the allegations against my son in the CBI probe which I had demanded in the lottery scam."
The former chief minister, now leader of opposition in teh state assembly, was reacting to media reports that the UDF government would initiate a vigilance probe on 11 specific issues.
These are the issues on which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, when he was leader of opposition, had written to Achuthanandan a few months back following allegations against V.A. Arun Kumar, the CPI-M leader's son.
Achuthanandan handed over the written allegations to the state Lok Ayukta.
Chandy has now ordered a police crime branch probe against the handing over of 2.33 acres of land by the Achuthanandan government just before the Marxist chief minister stepped down to his close relative.
Probe has also been ordered into the 40,000 missing answer sheets of a selection test that was held in 2006 to fill the post of assistants in Kerala University. Appointments to these posts were made in 2008 when Achuthanandan was the chief minister.