As if the trouble surrounding the murky gold smuggling case was not enough for the Kerala state government, now Kerala’s CM Pinarayi Vijayan has found himself stuck in the middle of the ‘forged’ signature row. Kerala’s state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that the signature of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was ‘forged’ on a government file when he went to the US for treatment in the year 2018.
Talking to media in Thiruvananthapuram, BJP spokesperson Sandeep Warrier presented documents pertaining to the Malayalam Language Day celebrations which, he alleged, were signed by the CM’s imposter.
“He returned to the state after his treatment on September 23rd. On September 3rd, a file from the general administration department regarding a function for promotion of Malayalam, according to the records, arrived at Vijayan’s office. On 9th September, this file was signed by Vijayan,” said Warrier.
“How can this happen, when Vijayan is in the US. This clearly shows that someone else has put Vijayan’s signature. The signature also is not an e-signature. So now we all want Vijayan to explain, who is putting his signature in his absence,” added Warrier, furthering that though the file was insignificant, “but the mystery remains on who has put his signature”.
BJP takes a jibe at Pinarayi Vijayan for his govt’s alleged role in the gold smuggling case
Taking a jibe at the incumbent Kerala State government and its alleged involvement in the Kerala gold smuggling case, Warrier stressed: “Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan left for treatment at Mayo Clinic in the US during this period and came back by the end of the month. It is not a digital signature either. Was it his former principal secretary M Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, who faked Pinarayi’s signature? I am wondering whether the CPM had deputed someone else to fake the Chief Minister’s signature,” Sandeep Warrier said.
Hinting at a deeper conspiracy, Warrier also said that it was only after such a signature, that M V Jayarajan was removed from the Chief Minister’s Office.
Kerala CM trashed BJP allegations, calls it a routine procedure
Responding to the allegations, the Kerala CM said that disposing files electronically is routine. He said that it was he himself and not an impostor who had signed the file related to Malayalam Language Day celebrations.
The CM on Thursday said that he had given this same argument when Congress legislator K C Joseph had earlier alleged that governance had come to a standstill and files were accumulating after the CM had gone to America.
The CM said he had been using the e-office facility whenever he was away from his office. While, Vijayan said his signature was a digital one, Warrier had said it was not, and the images of the document seemed to show a hand-written signature.
