Jayarajan levelled serious allegations of morphing photographs and playing "dirty politics" against Satheesan, who refuted it.
File photo of EP Jayarajan. (Supplied)
Tensions escalated during the Lok Sabha election campaign in Kerala over allegations of a business partnership between ruling LDF convener EP Jayarajan’s family and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s company.
Amidst this controversy, an FIR was filed against a local Congress leader based on a complaint by Jayarajan’s wife, alleging morphing of her photographs, while Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly VD Satheesan added fuel to the fire with fresh accusations against the LDF convener.
Jayarajan on Wednesday, 20 March, levelled serious allegations of morphing photographs and playing “dirty politics” against Satheesan, who refuted it.
Satheesan also hit back by saying that the Left leader has admitted to his family’s business relationship with Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar by conceding that his wife has shares in a resort linked to a company of the BJP leader.
“I had claimed that his (Jayarajan’s) family has business links with Chandrasekhar. He had initially denied it. Now, he has admitted that his wife has shares in a resort linked to a company of Chandrasekhar. So, I have proved my credibility,” the Opposition leader contended.
He was referring to Jayarajan’s press conference earlier in the day when the CPI(M) leader said that his wife had shares in a resort, which has links to a company of Chandrasekhar’s wife.
Jayarajan also said that his wife was looking to sell off her shares in that resort.
Subsequently, Satheesan said the CPI(M) should say if there is anything wrong with a senior member of its party having business links with a BJP leader, he said.
On the other hand, Chandrasekhar questioned how a business relationship between his wife and that of Jayarajan can be construed as a CPI(M)-BJP agreement.
Chandrasekhar is locked in a triangular contest with Shashi Tharoor of the UDF and Pannyan Raveendran of the LDF to the Lok Sabha in the Thiruvananathapuram constituency.
Satheesan also said that he has photographs, released by Chandrasekhar’s company, which show Jayarajan’s family members with the management of the BJP leader’s firm.
However, he denied having any knowledge about fake or morphed photographs that Jayarajan alleged the Opposition had created and spread on social media.
Earlier in the day, the LDF convener levelled a host of allegations against Satheesan ranging from an illegal collection of money from abroad to creating morphed photographs of his wife, and accused the Congress leader of playing “dirty politics.”
Jayarajan alleged that Satheesan was behind the circulation of morphed photographs of his wife — Indira — meeting Chandrasekhar, the BJP candidate contesting from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in the LS polls to be held in the state on 26 April.
Following this, it was revealed that Jayarajan’s wife has complained with the police against a Thiruvananthapuram DCC member for allegedly posting the morphed photograph on a social media platform.
The Baliapattam police station in the Kannur district on Tuesday, 19 March, has registered an FIR under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot), 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC against the DCC member on the complaint.
Satheesan denied any knowledge of the said photograph.
The Opposition leader has been alleging for some time that Jayarajan has business connections with Chandrasekhar.
They both had earlier denied the allegation.
(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)
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