Pinarayi Vijayan rejects allegations linking him to Exalogic case

Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday (July 25, 2026) dismissed the statement allegedly given by S.N. Sasidharan Kartha, founder and former managing director of Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd. (CMRL), to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Exalogic Solutions Pvt. Ltd.-CMRL financial transaction case, terming it a ‘media creation.’

An ED report claimed that during the questioning in connection with the investigation into allegations that CMRL paid ₹2.78 crore to Exalogic without receiving any services in return, Mr. Kartha admitted that the payments were made to Veena T. and her company because of her relationship with the then Chief Minister. Responding to a question on the ED report, Mr. Vijayan said many were waiting to see whether the Exalogic case could be linked to him.

He also questioned the media over reports concerning senior Communist Party of India (marxist) [CPI(M)] leader P.K. Sreemathi. “Will everything become true just because it is reported by the media?” he asked. Referring to Ms. Sreemathi, who on Thursday approached the police over a social media campaign alleging that she was drawing a family pension in the name of a deceased MLA, Mr. Vijayan said “Isn’t that all your creation? How long have you been creating something like this? Have you been able to create any impact with them, he asked.

When asked whether Ms. Veena owned another company apart from Exalogic, Mr. Vijayan replied with a counter-question: ‘What happened to Kamala International?, subtly recalling the past social media campaign linking a foreign firm Kamala International with him, after his wife’s name happened to be Kamala.