Kerala opposition cries foul over 'vindictive' raids

The United Democratic Front (UDF)-led Kerala opposition on Tuesday cried foul over the ongoing raids against a former state Minister of the Congress and termed the exercise as vindictive.

Since Saturday, the Kerala Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau has raided the residences of former Excise Minister and Congress leader K. Babu as also the residences of his two daughters and two close aides in connection with a probe into his alleged disproportionate assets.

After a meeting of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), its convenor P.P. Thankachen said there has been a blatant violation of all rules and procedures in undertaking the raids.

"We have no issues in tackling corruption but what has happened today is that the government is using the Vigilance Bureau as a tool to settle political scores. This will be dealt with both legally and politically by the UDF," said Thankachen.

Thankachen said there was no merit in the statements made by certain people that there was nothing wrong in the action of the Vigilance Bureau and they have collected evidence to substantiate their raids.

With reports coming up that a few more former ministers were on the radar of the Vigilance Bureau, now headed by Jacob Thomas, Thankachen said the Ministers in the previous Oommen Chandy-led UDF government have nothing to fear and none of them feared being raided.

--IANS

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