A day after an Indian Union Muslim League ( IUML) legislator slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Friday, the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) registered a case against him.

The case pertains to a complaint that KM Shaji took Rs 2.5 million for sanctioning courses in an aided school in his constituency in 2013-14.

On Thursday Shaji, the Azhikode constituency legislator went hammer and tongs against Pinarayi for his autocratic style of functioning and the way he is handling the CM Distress Relief Fund.

"Everything has changed in a matter of 24 hours and they (CPI(M)) were aiming for me for long and this incident first surfaced in 2014 and then when this government came, in 2017 the VACB went through this complaint given by K. Padmanabhan, a local CPI(M) village council president. Then the VACB had closed this case and I was not even called by them and it was written off. And see now it has come back. This is nothing but political vendetta," said Shaji.

The IUML is the second biggest ally of the Congress-led UDF. Shaji is already fighting an election case, where the apex court has stayed the Kerala High Court's order that disqualified him as an MLA in 2018 for communalising the 2016 assembly election held in his constituency.

The IUML has strongly come to the defence of Shaji and deputy opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly of the IUML, MK Muneer said that to pin down political opponents using the VACB will backfire very badly.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday took on his successor Pinarayi on the data transfer of COVID-19 suspects to a US-based PR and marketing firm Sprinklr and termed it as very suspicious as it had no official clearance.

Chandy told the media that this agreement with a US firm was in gross violation of the business rules of the Kerala government. "I am really baffled that no procedures have been followed. As per the guidelines, this has to get concurrence of the law, finance, revenue and health departments, besides clearance from the Centre also. Nothing of this sort has happened," said Chandy. Chandy also pointed out that the most serious lapse in the agreement is in case of any dispute arising in future, as the jurisdiction would be in the state of New York in the US.

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